The Flip Side of Normal
by RogueWitch
Summary: What if... there are a million what if's everyday... what if the DNA test said something different?
1. Chapter 1

The Flip Side of Normal

Part 1

"You're not trying to burn a hole through a stack of paper using only the power of your stare again?" I say upon entering Mars Investigations to find my father staring at the papers on the coffee table.

"Hey sweetheart, have a seat a minute; I have to talk to you." The tone of his voice worried me a bit, but I sit on the couch and face him none the less. "I met with Celeste Kane today."

"She's paying you double and sponsoring our club membership?" I say trying to lighten the mood.

"Well, she actually agreed to pay up but only if you sign this contract that says that you'll never sue them again. She wants you to wave any claim on the Kane fortune."

I pick up the document and a pen, there is no doubt in my mind, no matter what my DNA might say, that Keith Mars is my father. Dad just watches me.

"What? Was I supposed to sign in blood?"

"Do you know what you just signed away?" Dads choked up, his voice hesitant, like he doesn't want to tell me something.

"There's nothing that I want from them." Dad gives me a sad smile and hands me the test results which he had under the contract. It takes me some time to make sense of what it says, I'm a Kane, and there is no doubt about it. I can feel the tears falling down my face, but I ignore them and launch myself into my father's arms. "Just because my DNA says one thing doesn't mean that my heart agrees."

"I know, sweetie." He hugs me fiercely before letting go.

"I hate to sign over millions in inheritance and run, but there's someone else who needs to see this."

"I'll be here when you get back."

"Yeah, you will. I love you dad."

"You too, daughter."

I wait until I get to the car before I start sobbing. I only let myself go for a few minutes before wiping my eyes and starting the car.

The Kane Mansion was always intimidating, though today it wasn't the size that was intimidating, but the what if's. I could hear the ringing of the door bell though the door, echoing thought out the house. When Duncan answered the door I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or throw up, I chose neither, instead I started to cry again. Duncan just watched in confusion as I broke down. After a few minutes I wiped my eyes.

"Can we go sit down somewhere?" My voice was thick from crying and my eyes stung. Duncan continued to look a bit shocked but nodded his head.

"Yeah, we can head to my room." I must have looked as uncomfortable as I felt because he quickly changed his mind, "or Lilly's?"

"Lilly's," I confirmed.

We walked down the hall in silence, the kind where no one is comfortable, where you can feel the tension crawling up the back of your neck.

Duncan opened and held the door for me, then followed me in, closing the door and leaning on it. I sat down on the bed and took a few deep breaths.

"Well?" Duncan looked unhappy, not only about me being there, but by the way I wouldn't look at him.

"I want to apologies about the way you found out about Logan and I." I looked up from the floor, letting my eyes gaze at him about mid chest. "We wanted to be the ones to tell you, not the way you found out."

"Is this why you came over here, to say your sorry?" Duncan crossed his arms over his chest and stood over me. "Couldn't you have done this over the phone?"

"Yeah, I could have." I looked into his eyes then, he was standing so close it was hard to look, but I felt that I should. "But, I couldn't show you this over the phone." I handed him both envelopes, the one with the contract on top. While he read them over, I looked around Lilly's room. My eyes caught on the vent and it triggered my memory, Logan opening the vent in his pool house. Something struck me as odd about Lilly's vent. I stood up from the bed and walked over to it, momentarily forgetting that Duncan was there. I dragged the desk chair over to the wall and stood on it, bringing the vent to eye level. One of the screws to the vent was missing. I fingered the remaining screw and it came away easily in my hand.

"This can't be true." Duncan's exclamation brought me out of my trance, but I finished opening the vent anyway and put my hand inside. I pulled out a bad full of videotapes. Not knowing what else to do, I showed them to Duncan. "I have something that can play those, but afterwards, we talk."

"Deal."

Duncan puts the first tape into the camera and presses play. The pool house at Logan's comes onto the screen. "Where's that?"

"Logan's. The pool house." Duncan gives me a look that says he doesn't want to know how I know this. I shake my head, then nod back to the screen, right as Lilly appears. "That's her pep squad uniform. This… this is the day she died."

One the TV Lilly is talking, "Come here, lover. Time to earn your keep." Lilly flops back on the bed and a look of curiosity comes over her face. She stands up on the bed and looks directly into the lens in the fan. Then the tape cuts out.

Duncan looks confused, "what?"

"Let's see the other tapes."

Duncan swaps the tapes then comes back to sit beside me. "This one is dated October first." He points the remote at the TV, hitting play. We see Lilly lying on top of someone in the bed. Duncan shifts uncomfortably, but continues to watch. After the camera angle switches a few times, the other person's face appears on the screen.

"Oh, my god." I want to vomit, but before I do my mind starts racing, I vaguely hear Duncan exclaim "Mr. Echolls?" Duncan pauses the tape on Aaron Echolls' face, the man clearly knew that he was being taped.

I remember back to what Lilly said to me the day she died, "I've got a seciret, a good one."

"Veronica?"

"I know what happened." I tell Duncan what I'm thinking, about Aaron killing Lilly over possession of the tapes, about how she found the recording equipment like I did, how she swipped the tapes then drove back here and hid them, how Aaron hit her with the ashtray when she would give them back.

"Could he really do that?" Duncan looks at me in disbelief.

"He's psychotic. I watched him beat a guy into a bloody mess and then ask Logan how his school day was. He beats Logan, you know?" Duncan just nods. "Oh god, I have to call dad, he's going to turn over evidence on Logan's blown alibi."

"What?"

"I'll explain in the car, we have to go to the office."

"Don't think that this changes the fact that we have to talk."

"Catch Lilly's killer now, talk about incest later, okay?"

"Sounds fabulous." Sarcasm simply dripped from Duncan's voice.

Dad answered the phone after only one ring. "Mars Investigation."

"Dad, don't go to Lamb with the 'Baked in Ensinada' information, I've got a new development."

"It's too late, sweetie, they already picked up Logan."

"Meet me at the Sheriff's department. I know who did it, and I have proof. It's not Logan."

"Where are you, I'll come get you, we can go together."

"I'm at the Kane Estate, I'm with Duncan, and we'll meet you there in ten minutes."

"Be careful." The phone went dead in my hand and I shoved the cell in my bag.

"Let's go, they already picked up Logan, he's going to be pissed." I walked out the door without looking back. "Bring the files too. I don't want to just leave those around." I would hear Duncan shuffling around behind me. With the tapes safely in my messenger bag and Duncan holding my documents, we headed out to the La Baron.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

I entered the Sheriff's Department at a near fun, I hadn't met the deputy behind the desk, but he seemed to know me.

"The sheriff's in interrogation." The deputy seemed to think that would stop me, he was wrong.

"Oh, good, then I'm right on tome." I walked right past the deputy to the closed interrogation room door. "Logan Echolls?" The deputy nodded weakly and I pushed the door open as my cell phone rang.

"Ask and you shall receive." Logan grinned at me and closed his cell phone, which prompted mine to stop ringing.

"Logan didn't do it." I started to tell Lamb.

"Your father seems to think you disagree." Lamb just looked annoyed, Logan looked confused.

"You turned me in? Wait, you where investigating me?" He looked hurt and I was sorry I had caused it, but I was also unsure whether or not I could trust him.

"Not until your alibi fell though and the shot glass you bought Lilly turned out to have been in her car the day she died, but the point is moot, you didn't do it."

"I know that, I don't understand how you could even think that I would be capable of that." Logan was no longer just hurt, he was angry, shoving his hands though his hair and pacing the room.

"I found something that made me not trust you, I'll tell you all about it on the way home, I have to show these video's to Lamb, I'll meet you outside." As I said this Duncan came into the room with a TV and the deputy in tow.

"Does Duncan get to watch?" Logan almost sounded jealous.

"Trust me man, you do not want to see these." Duncan looked a bit green at the memory.

I was about to protest when Logan took the first video out of my hand and popped it in the player. Lilly's face came onto the screen. "Is that my pool house?"

"Yeah, I found the recording equipment, that's why I took off."

"It's not mine."

"Trust me," I pointed at the screen where Mr. Echolls was now visible, "I know."

Logan's jaw dropped and he steadily turned more and more white. "Oh, God."

Three hours later the three of us had left the Sheriff's Department and where sitting in the living room of my apartment.

"So, its all really over?" Logan twirled the glass in his hand slowly, watching the ice in his drink.

"Except for the trial, yeah, its over." None of us really knew what to do. "Oh, in other news, I'm a Kane."

"I really screwed up that much that you not only turned me into the police, but married Duncan?" Logan looked like he was about to get angry again.

"That would be illegal for way too many reasons." Duncan chuckled a bit then looked kind of green.

"Okay, I'll bite, how are you a Kane?" I handed the genetics test results over to Logan. "Oh, god."

"Yep, that's what I said." Duncan tried to smile, but settled on not looking sick.

"Wait, did you say that you had sex with Duncan at Shelley's Party?" Logan looked confused and Duncan bolted for the bathroom, from the living room we could hear him vomiting.

"Maybe its best if we pretend that Shelley's party never happened."

"Okay. I have another hard question." Logan started watching the ice in his glass again. "What are we going to do about us?"

"I think we need to have trust before there can ever really be an us."

"So what? Are we going to be friends or something?"  
"Can't we go back to how it was when Lilly was alive; can it be the three of us as friends?"

"Without the awkward coupleness, we can try." Logan looked sad, but at the same time relieved, I think that our relationship was taking as much out of him as it was me. "Do you think we should check on Duncan?"

"He'll come out when he gets images of Shelley's party out of his head."

"How are you so calm about it?"  
"I don't remember any of it." Logan placed his free hand on my shoulder and looked pained.

"I'm relay sorry for my part in all of that."

"And I told you I forgive you. Now let's concentrate on this friend thing."

"I'm game, but first, what am I going to do on Monday?"

"The same thing I did after my dad was kicked out of office, hold you head up, and ignore the fact that people who you thought where your friends are now tormenting you. Only you will have Duncan and I at your side."

"It's amazing how much you've changed in all of this; you really are a wonderful friend."

"You're just saying that cuz you want to get back to the groping."

"True, but I think you and I are a long way from that if we want to work on this trust and friendship thing."

Duncan stumbled out of the bathroom at that point, looking a bit less green. "I think its about time we head out Veronica, my parents are going to be worried."

"Yeah, I can see why, take care of Logan this weekend."

"Will do, see you at school Monday."

"Oh, give the contract to you mom, I want that check. And can you give me a ride to school on Monday; I La Baron's going to get a tune up."

"Sounds good, we should present a united front anyway, Monday will be brutal, and we can take the Yellow Monster."

"Hey, I like my car!" Logan pretended to look offended. "Thanks Ronnie. See you Monday."

The apartment was too quite after the boys left. Dad was at the office putting the Lilly Kane file into some what usable order for Lamb, mom had taken off as soon as Aaron was arrested, probably not wanting to be in the spotlight again, and Backup was sleeping on the couch. All I had to keep me company where my thoughts. It all kept coming back to one thing, Duncan was my brother, it was beyond a disturbing thought. Suddenly all of my wonderful memories with him became disturbing and wrong. My mind bulked at the knowledge that I had had sex with him; that I had lost my virginity to my brother, this was Southern California, that just didn't happen here.

I took off for the bathroom and repeated Duncan's scene from earlier, I threw up, trying to vomit out the memories of this touches and his kisses, trying to purge my body of all of the things he made me feel. I tried to block it out with memories of Logan's touch, his kisses, but to some degree that felt incestuous to me as well.

I rinsed my mouth out and turned on the shower as hot as I could stand it. Today had gone by so quickly and now, standing in the near scalding water, watching my skin turn pink, it hit me. It was over, I solved Lilly's murder, Aaron Echolls was in jail and I suddenly didn't have leads to follow, people to question, checks to run; I was completely at a loss as of what to do.

The door bell rang right when I was about to put shampoo in my hair. I rinsed the soap from my hands and turned off the water. It seemed that people only wanted to visit when I was in the shower home alone. I would analyze that later.

The air outside the bathroom was like ice and I was shivering when I answered the door. "I was wondering when you would get here." My visitor just nodded and pushed off the railing.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

"Its all over the news, V. Aaron Echolls, charged with the murder of Lilly Kane. I must say, I'm impressed, I didn't think you could do it." Weevil stood in my doorway, his leather jacket open over his white wife-beater, maybe it had my long day, maybe it was my inner Lilly whispering in my ear, but he looked almost too good to pass up. He slid past me into the house and my eyes followed him the entire way, admiring the way his shirt molded to his chest and seeing his tattoos peaking out over the collar or his shirt, like they where bagging me to pull the shirt off and free them.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the images of the half naked leader of a biker gang. I could almost hear Lilly giggling in my ear, whispering for me to seize the moment.

"Like what you see, Chica?" Weevil grinned and pushed his hands onto his hips, shoving his jacket out of the way, showing more of his wife-beater hugging his body. I wanted to drool, I wanted to touch him, I wanted to know where these lusty thoughts of Weevil had come from. Sure I had noticed him before, he's nice eye candy, but I've never had the urge to rip his cloths off and have my way with him. He was the leader of the PCH Bike Club, not someone my father would approve of me being with, and anyways, I had just broken up with Logan.

"Your very pretty, Weevil." I shoved the lusty images of him to the back of my mind for later consideration. "What can I do for you?"

Weevil took my slip of the tongue as an opportunity to wiggle his eyebrows at me, while shrugging out of his leather jacket and depositing it on the chair in my living room.

"That wasn't an innuendo." I sounded more annoyed then I meant to, probably because I had just been undressing him in my mind. "It's late, and you interrupted my shower, what do you need?"

"Felix is missing." He stopped grinning and genuinely looked worried. "He rode of with Thumper last night, said they where going to some party. He was supposed to meet me at my uncles shop this afternoon, we just got a new part in for his bike and we where going to install it. But he never showed. His mom said he hasn't been home."

"What about Thumper, have you seen him?" I lead Weevil over to the couch and sat with him, giving him my full attention, lusty thoughts momentarily forgotten.

"Thumper came back early this morning, according to his mom; he was at work when I rode by."

"Did you ask him where Felix was, if he had seen him since the party?" When people panic and worry they tend to skip steps and go into worst case scenario mode. Sometimes it just helps to talk things out with someone who is outside of the situation.

"I don't think there was a party. Things have gotten rough the past few months, Felix has kept my back while the others have been putting pressure on me, saying I've been going soft, cuz I've been helping you. I got lots of crap for running out on a petty theft to go pick you up from Echolls' place the other night. The boys went anyway; a few got picked up by Lamb."

"You think Thumper and you boys did something to Felix to weaken you?" I was completely confused. "And you think I can help, even though you just said that working with me has weakened your status in the PCH?"

"Kind of."

"How 'Kind of.'"

"I want you to help me find Felix, then I want you to help me regain my status, or, if they really did something to Felix, it might be time to get out, and I will need your help there too.: He said the last part hesitantly, as if he hadn't really though it through before that moment.

"I'll help you find Felix, but how can I help you in any other way? I thought you said I was hurting your reputation." If I hadn't already been sitting down, I would have done it at that moment. My world seemed to be spinning in all kind of directions; today had just come with too many surprises.

"They think I'm just some whipped puppy to you, that I follow you around helping you because you're like Lilly."

"Do you?" This was news to me, since when was I like Lilly?

"No, I respect you; I've watched you grow from Lilly's little shadow into someone who I think even Lilly would be afraid to cross. I help you because I know when I really need it you'll help me. I may even venture so far as to cal you a friend." Weevil looked almost uncomfortable, sitting in the ex-Sheriff's apartment, having a heart to heart with his daughter.

"I know you're my friend. And as such, I'll help out, for now, on finding Felix, we'll see how it goes from there, hey, if you want you can even call me 'woman' in front of your boys." That made Weevil smile, the tension leaving his shoulders a bit, he leaned back on the couch, stretching, showing off the muscles on his chest, and just like that business went right out the window and all the lusty feelings from before came right back.

"Wouldn't your boy get all upset if he saw you looking at me like that?" Weevil's leer cam back, suggesting things only suitable for the bedroom.

"My boy?" I couldn't think of who he meant, I had a boy, wasn't that one of those things that someone should inform you of.

"Echolls, the boy whose house you called me from, the lost puppy that's been making eyes at you all this week because you've been ignoring him."

"Oh, yeah. We broke up today."

"Okay, why? Tell me it had something to do with our late night ride."

"No, more to do with the fact that I turned him into Lamb."

"What did you do that for?" Weevil looked confused and a bit scared, not that I blame him, since I have plenty of dirt on him that I could go to Lamb with also, not that I would. Weevil has been using me as a get out of jail free card all year, I wasn't about to switch sides on him now.

"It had to do with the Lilly Kane case, he lied to me, and his alibi was false. I found evidence that he had been in Neptune the day Lilly died, so I turned him in. The real reason is that I don't trust him, I want to, but I don't."

"Why did you tell me all of this?"  
"Because you asked, and I do trust you." I stood up from the couch and picked up the glasses that the boys had left earlier. "And now, I'm going to ask you a favor."

"Alright."

"I need to take the La Baron into your Uncle's shop; she's making a noise I don't entirely like the sound of, which means I'm going to be car less this weekend. Will you be my ride while we track down Felix, and follow me over to the shop now and bring me home?"

"On one condition." Weevil looked pointedly at my bathrobe.

"I will not wear this to ride on your hog." I felt a bit offended that he would even ask.

"I wasn't implying you should, I was going to say that you needed to change first, put on some heavy jeans, its chilly tonight." Now it was his turn to look offended. "You night want a jacket also."

"Oh, right, sure thing." I could feel my face turn a bit red at what I had been thinking.

"But, if you want to go a bit underdressed later tonight, you're welcome to take a ride on my hog after we get back." Weevil smiled and cocked his head at me, and was rewarded with a glare.

"I'll go change." I put the glasses into the sink and left the room.

AN: I must say, the responce to this story is heart warming... I started it because there just wasn't enough Weevil fiction out there... and he's too good of a character to pass by... but the responces I have gotten have made my week... Thank you to everyone who has reviewed... and keep it up!


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

When I came back into the room Weevil had his nose pressed into the file I had left on the coffee table, any other day I would have gotten angry at the invasion of my privacy, but today I was just too tired.

"Read anything interesting?" I asked, watching Weevil's head rocket out of the folder.

"When did you find out about this?"

"This morning, that's why I was at the Kane Estate, I had to tell Duncan."

"Wow, V, you had a long day."

"That's the understatement of the century."

"So, now that you know you're a Kane, you going to become an '09er chick?"

"Being a Kane changes nothing, I'm not getting a penny out of it, just a bucket full of disturbing memories." I wasn't really sure that I wanted to say that last part out loud, if I wanted anyone else to think about the fact that Duncan and I had dated, but Weevil just let it pass completely.

"I'll hold you to that, I like my Veronica as a PI, suits my purposes quite well." Weevil cocked his head to the side, imitating my signature move. "Ready to go?"

"Am I dressed appropriately now?" I had traded my bath robe for a pair of dark jeans, a black t-shirt that stated 'Groupie' in sliver and a close fitting leather jacket. I did a turn, trying to get the words 'my Veronica' out of my head.

"To ride my motorcycle, yes; for anything else, your way over dressed." Weevil headed out of the apartment, holding the door open for me.

"Well, as your motorcycle is the only thing of yours that I intend on riding tonight, I guess that works."

"Tease." Weevil closed the door and smiled at me. If only he knew what I had been thinking earlier.

The ride over to the shop was too quite, one of the many things that was wrong with the La Baron was the radio, it was stuck on an oldies station and had been for a few weeks. It wasn't that I really had anything against oldies, but I just couldn't bring myself to listen to one more Elvis song. The only thing I could do about the radio at this point was replace it. Though I guess I should be glad I had turned the think off, because it was the only reason I had heard the noise that the car was making.

Weevil followed behind me on his bike, it was almost comforting to know that he was there, with all that had happened today, and I didn't really want to be alone. The drive seemed entirely too long and with the silence my thoughts crept back in. What was I going to do now, investigating Lilly's murder had been the only thing keeping me going, keeping me from really accepting the fact that she really was dead. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I expected her to come back once the case was solved, which is ridicules, I know.

Thinking of Lilly made me think again about Duncan, who had been my first love, my first, the guy I had sex with at Shelley's party, not that I remember it, and now, it turns out that he's my brother. Even though I don't remember the party of the sex, there are a million more memories that we shared, I felt dirty, like I had after I found out Logan had had the GHB at the party. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scour my brain with a brilow pad. I wanted Lilly to be in the car with me, I wanted a girl friend to talk to, and I didn't have one.

I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as I pulled into the auto body shop, but I couldn't bring myself to wipe them away. I shut off the car and just let myself cry, for everything, for Lilly, who wasn't coming back, for Duncan and out horrible memories together and for me, I cried for everything that had happened in the past year and a half, everything I had held in and hoped would just dissipate into the wind if I ignored it long enough.

I didn't even hear the passenger door open, but I felt the strong arms wrap around me and pull me over the center dash to situate me in this arms. I didn't feel the need to spill my guts to Weevil, but it does feel good to have some one hold me.

He says nothing, just sits there until my tears dry up, he wipes the stray tears from my face and smiles reassuringly at me.

"You ready?" I know he means if I'm ready to get out of the car, to head back home, but doing that means reuniting with reality. Can you ever really be ready for your life to change? I wasn't ready at all, but at least this time I knew what to expect to an extent, this time I had people to stick by me, people who counted on me to stick by them.

"Yeah, we can get out, but I don't thin I'm ready to go home just yet. I have too many thoughts." Weevil just nodded and lifted me out of the car. He pulled the keys from the ignition, locked the doors and put the car key in the drop box, the disappeared into the shop, leaving me standing by his bike.

"Thought you might like a real helmet, since we're going to be riding all weekend." Weevil held up a black full face helmet when he exited the shop, it had a blue and purple butterfly air brushed onto the back of it.

"Wont it's owner miss it?" I took the helmet from Weevil; it was small and looked like it would fit with out rattling around on my head, like Weevil's always did when I rode with him.

"It's Angel's exes, I don't think she'll come back looking for it, and the amount of time you spend on my bike these days, you should hang on to it."

I slid the helmet over my head and let Weevil adjust the strap under the chin. It was snug and made my hearing muffled, but the clear glass in the front had the same affect that goggles sometimes do, making everything seem a little brighter, even though you know that there not really doing it.

Weevil slipped on his own helmet then swung his leg over his bike and sat, waiting for me to join him. I marveled at how natural it had come to feel, getting on to the bike and fitting myself around him, being able to feel his body molded to mine from knees to chest, how nice it felt to loop my arms around his waist and lean in. I gripped my legs a bit tighter around him, grounding myself with the feel of him between my legs, hoping that it would rid me of all the things that had happened that day. It worked, too well; my thoughts flew from my head and the images from before of a half naked Weevil cam flying back into my head.

"V, if you don't stop squirming and squeezing back there we're not going anywhere. What, did Logan not treat the lady right?"

"Logan and I never got past the kissing stage, the whole GHB rape incident left me a bit gun shy."

"Well, if you don't quit rubbing on me, even I'm not going to be able to resist pulling you into my lap and having my way with you, and I'm a gentlemen." With that revelation, Weevil started up the engine and roared out of the parking lot. I held on tight, loving the feel of the wind whipping by me. Riding on Weevil's bike was like flying, breath taking and exhilarating and just a little bit dangerous, though I knew he would do everything in his power to keep me from harm.

Weevil stopped at the parking lot to God Beach and I slip from the bike without a word, pulling off my helmet as I walked along the sand toward the water. I settled quietly on the sand, feeling Weevil sit down next to me in silence. If it had been anyone else, I would have felt the need to break the silence, to fill it with something, but the silence was already full, filled with the good byes we where both saying to Lilly.

"She loved you, you know." Weevil was the first to speak, and I would have been lying if I said I wasn't shocked at what he had to say. "She talked about you all the time. When we were together it always felt like you where in the room also."

"I wish she would have said something about you. I told her once, while we were sitting out by her pool, that I liked your tattoos and I wondered what it would be like to ride a motorcycle and be bad for just one day. She told me you where dangerous and to stay away."

"She didn't want to corrupt you, she liked you innocent."

"I wouldn't have approved then, Logan was safe to me, with Lilly. And some how, I feel safer with you here then I would have ever felt with Logan."

"We should get you home." He got up and brushed the sand from his pants and extended his hand to me, helping me up.

We rode back to my place in silence, this time Lilly wasn't there to fill it, we had said our good-byes, and she was gone, not forever, she would always be in Neptune, but for now.

Weevil walked me up to the door, polite like after a first date when you're fourteen, awkward and sweet.

"What time do you want me to come get you in the morning?" He ran his and over the back of his neck, rolling his eyes up to look at me.

I looked at my watch, amazed that it was after one in the morning. "How about ten, we can head over to the office and start there."

"You're going to let me Sleuth with you?"  
"This is your case, I'm just chaperoning, don't want your boys to think you ran to the little white girl for help as soon as you got into trouble."

"I'll see you at ten." He turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm, spinning him back to me, I put the hand not holding the helmet on his chest and placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

"I would have let you, you know?"

"Let me what, V?" He didn't look upset, only a bit shocked and confused.

"Have your way with me." I look him right in the eye when I say it.

"See if you feel the same way after you ride with me for the weekend, my world isn't all sunshine and puppies."

"Neither is mine." He pulls me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist and kisses me hard, then he was gone, and I was left standing on my door step holding a butterfly motorcycle helmet.


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

I stood in the door way to the apartment that I shared with my father and my beloved pooch, thinking about the gang leader who had just kissed me. Not only had he kissed me, but had turned down sex, telling me that he wanted me to see his world before hand, almost as if he wanted me around for more then just one night. I had just broken up with Logan, not six hours before, and I was already thinking about another guy; I had already kissed someone else. I was such a slut.

I smiled and rubbed the pad of my thumb over my lips. This was going to be an interesting weekend.

I woke up at six thirty to an enthusiastic pit bull licking my face, wanting desperately to be walked. I hauled myself out of bed and pulled on my sweats and left my room, checking briefly into my father's room to see if he was up yet. He must have gotten in pretty late, because his shoes where still on, and he was facedown on the bed, snoring like a champ, not even under the covers. I snickered as I closed his door and got Backup's leash from the kitchen counter.

In typical Southern California style, it was beautiful out on the beach, even at a quarter to seven in the morning. The sun reflected beautifully on the water, surfers catching the early morning waves, and me, alone with a pit-bull sitting on the sand. Backup ran excitedly back and forth between me and the ball I was throwing for him, mindless of the sand that I was sure he was swallowing, and knew couldn't possibly be good for his digestion. My thoughts stayed firmly on the surfers in front of me, a nice distraction of the flashes of memories I kept getting from my time with Duncan, sometimes even my time with Logan. Don't get me wrong, I love them both dearly, though I would never tell Logan that, he would use it to his advantage any chance he got; but not the thought of either of them made me a little sick. I know Logan and I aren't related in anyway, but he reminded me too much of Duncan, with the hair and the eyes and his coloring. And I think that right there was the problem, he looked too much like my brother, and Weevil looks nothing like Duncan at all.

All the trying not to think had led my mind right to all of the things that I didn't want to have swimming around, the elephant in the room was looming over my shoulder, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had done my crying, I was done with that, now I just had to come to terms with everything. But how does one come to terms with the fact that her ex-boyfriend is actually her brother, that said boyfriend had slept with her, knowing that she could very possibly be his sister, while both where under the influence of drugs? How do you deal with the fact that your dead best friend, whose murderer you had just caught, was really your half sister? How do you deal with the fact that your newest ex-boyfriend's, and your dead best friend slash half sister's ex-boyfriend's, father was her murderer? And then there was the newest question, how do you deal with the fact that you want to jump the gang leader, in a completely clothing optional kind of way, when you have to spend the weekend with him, on the back of his bike?

I flopped back into the sand, hoping, on some level, that the world would chose this moment to swallow me whole, on the other hand, I wanted to know how this would all pan out, how I was going to actually face the world and how this next part of my life, this new change, would affect everything. What was the new Veronica Mars going to be like, the one with friends and family to stick by her? Last year it was just me and dad, this year I have a whole slue of friends to back me up.

Dad was up and in the kitchen when I got back with Backup at almost eight thirty. He looked tired, but then so did the coffee machine, which looked to be on its second pot of the morning.

"Morning Sweetie, how are you today? I know we didn't get a chance to talk yesterday, and I did dump something pretty big on you. Do you want to talk about it?" Dad handed me a cup of freshly brewed coffee and a muffin, and I knew that he was feeling guilty for not being around the day before.

"I'm fine, dad. I'm not really ready to talk about everything. Too much happened yesterday." I sat at the counter with my coffee and my muffin, not even bothering with cream or sugar. I wanted my coffee bitter. I wanted it to burn down my throat and hurt a little. I wanted something outside of all the questions that I had been asking myself. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Okay, how about we talk about where your car is?"

"Oh, yeah. I had it taken over to Angel's shop yesterday; it's been making a noise. Weevil gave me a lift home."

"You know how I feel about that kid, sweetheart."

"No, I know how you felt about him a year ago, before he became my friend. He's going to be my ride for the weekend; he's helping me with a case." I took a deep sip of my coffee, letting it burn down my throat, only letting myself show a slight grimace when it burned.

"Well, at least I'll know where he is then. Don't let him get you into too much trouble. When is your car going to be ready?" Dad didn't look too happy, but I knew he trusted me, and that was all that really mattered.

"Probably not until later this week, we just dropped it off last night; no one was there when we got there."

"Are you going to be riding with this boy all week?"

"No, Logan and Duncan are giving me a ride to school on Monday; we'll see where it goes from there."

"And how are things with you and Logan?"

"We broke up. With our lack of trust I felt it was best if we build on that first, before we try something more then that."

"My little girl's all grown up." He smiled at me, his 'I'm so proud of you' smile, the one he gave me after I caught my first philandering spouse on camera, the one he gave me when I held my head up high and walked into school after he had lost his job. I knew I had done well by him when he gave me that smile. At least I knew one thing in my life was going to be okay, my father and I where family no matter what, and that smile proved it to me.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Hey everyone, sorry this part is a bit shorter then usual... but I got to the end of the chapter, and it just felt right... anyway... thanks for reading, and don't forget to review... it makes my day!

Part 6

Despite the fact that my father trusted me, he still gave poor Weevil a lecture before letting us leave to go to the office, where my father could continue to watch the boy. I listened quietly from my room, while I ran around finding something to wear. Since Weevil had interrupted my shower the night before, I had hopped in the shower after breakfast with dad, washing my hair and finally getting a chance to try out the new razor that I had gotten a few days before, in the end, I wasn't satisfied and decided to go back to my pretty pink Venus, and trash the weird vibrating battery operated, will lift the hairs right up so that you get a cleaner shave, piece of crap.

My father was going through the finer points of just how much he would kill Weevil if we got in any kind of accident, or if Weevil got me in any kind of trouble, while I was pulling my wet hair into a loose ponytail at the base of my neck. Weevil was taking the lecture very well, answering my father with 'Yes sir,' and 'I understand Sheriff Mars;' while my father continued to talk, peppering his lecture with 'Please call me Keith,' which let me know he, on some level, trusted and liked Weevil. My father had always made Logan call him Mr. Mars; then again, Logan called him Dude and not Sheriff Mars.

I grabbed the helmet that Weevil had given me the night before, when I heard my father wind down on the lecture, exiting my room, and shutting the door.

"Well, I'm ready to head to the office. Dad, are you done with Weevil?" I smiled and pulled my messenger bag over my shoulder.

"I'm done. When did you get a motorcycle helmet?" I could hear another lecture coming on, and to spare Weevil yet another twenty minutes listening to my father explain how, if my daughter is hurt in anyway I will make sure that when I kill you no one will come looking for you, I grabbed Weevil's hand and pulled him out of the apartment, throwing a "See you at the office, Dad," over my shoulder.

Weevil was quiet as soon as we left the apartment, not seeming to know where to look, but trying his hardest not to look at me. I was trying not to be insulted, knowing that after last night things where going to be a bit strained between us. I never really understood why things got strange after a first kiss with anyone, people all of a sudden don't know what to do our say around another person. It was like, once you kiss them, suddenly your entire relationship changes, which is untrue; once you kiss someone your comfort level around them should increase, you no longer have as much of a space issue, the question of how and when you can touch them stops being a problem. This is my theory anyway, in actuality, there is always a period of awkward glances and careful avoidance that happens, while you're figuring out what your new relationship means, what's going to happen next, and how your supposed to act around the person now. I felt the need to completely avoid this part of the relationship; I wanted to move right along to the next step, the comfortable with the other person, new touches and hand holding part. I had completely embraced the fact that I was attracted to Weevil, he was a nice, deserving guy, and it helped that I was absolutely positive that there was no way I could be related to him, and to me, that was hugely attractive.

I stopped Weevil before we had gotten to his bike, outside of the gates to my apartment complex, where I knew my father couldn't be looking out the window watching us, which I had no doubt he would be once we got to Weevil's bike.

"I don't like dancing." Weevil cocked his eyebrow at me, so I continued. "I don't want to deal with the awkward, we kissed last night, what does it mean, where are we going from here, bullshit."

"We're dancing?" Weevil looked only a bit less confused.

"You are, you haven't even said hello yet."

"Your father just gave me a twenty minute lecture on how disposable I am. I'm digesting." He put his hand on the back of my shoulder and pulled me into him, wrapping his free arm around my back. "Good morning, Veronica." He kissed my forehead and turned me to walk to the bike. "Your fathers watching."

I turned back to the complex and saw my dads head poking out from around the corner; he was trying to look like he was just on his way to his car. I waved at him, and he looked a bit sheepish at his spying, which made me feel better. I slipped the helmet onto my head, and swung my leg over the back of Weevil's bike, looping my hand around his waist. I got to do this all weekend, and I was thrilled.

"Hang on tight, chica, its going to be a rocky weekend."

"Promise?" I could hear the innuendo in my voice, and wondered if Weevil could hear it too, he just chuckled and started the engine, pulling us smoothly out of the parking lot.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 7

We spent three hours at the office, with my dad watching from the next room, trying and failing at being stealthy. After the first twenty minutes of him watching us over the top of a case file, and Weevil and I glancing back at him constantly, he gave up trying to hide the fact that he was watching, and moved into the main room with us, adding his two cents in whenever I got stuck on something. In the end, we had established that Felix had no credit card, his cell phone hadn't been used since the call he received from Thumper, supposedly about the party, and his bike was MIA. I had called Leo at the station, and finagled my way into another favor from him, which was rewarded with my father, yet again, pointing out that he couldn't understand how I got the poor guy to do favors for me, when I had treated him the way I had. Weevil told my father that he knew exactly how I got people to do favors for me.

"Really? And how exactly does my daughter get men to do favors for her, I've been dying to figure this little mystery out. She has one female friend that I'm aware of and even Mac does favors for Veronica, seemingly without any kind of payment or return favor." My father tilts his head to the side and looks at Weevil, who grins.

"That, what your doing right now, the head tilt, that is how she gets people to do favors for her." Weevil looks at me, "I can see where you get it from. Unfortunately for you, Sheriff Mars, you're not a tiny little blonde girl."

"She just tilts her head?"

"That's what I'm saying and it works, she can get anyone to eat right out of her hand with that tilt."

"Hey, I do favors in return for people." I'm slightly offended at the assumption that people do things for me without anything done in return.

"That's true; you do favors for lots of people." His grin makes me want to punch him, but I resist, which gives me the opportunity to pat myself on the back, I can grow as a person, I don't have to hit everyone who makes innuendos at me. Of course, if I hit everyone who made innuendos to me, every time they did, I would not only never do anything else, but I would probably develop a pretty impressive bruise on my hand.

"And, with that, I think its time for us to take a break." I check my watch, seeing that it's almost one thirty in the afternoon. "We should swing by the Sheriff's department, see if Leo has anything for us, then I say we grab something to eat, and go over and talk to Mrs. Toombs."

"V, are we making you uncomfortable? Cuz you know, there are many fun story's I'm sure your father and I could come up with that would turn that pretty face of yours a nice pink."

"And I'm walking out the door, I'm assuming that you're following me, since you are my ride, and who knows what I could do to your bike all on my own."

"Don't touch the bike, V." Weevil's panicked face made everything the two of them had said in the past twenty minutes worth it.

The Sheriff's department, though not one of my favorite stops in Neptune, seemed to be one of my most frequent. And despite this fact, there are always faces I don't recognize, then again, I was usually at the department doing one of three things; one, I was being detained for one reason or another, and Lamb came up with new and creative reasons to bring be in just about every week, two, I was bailing one of my friends out, usually either Logan or Weevil, and three, I was there to get a favor or information from Leo. I would say that I felt bad about that last one, but he never seemed to complain, at least not anymore, maybe he had just given up.

The deputy that greeted us, I had seen on several occasions, though I had never bothered to learn his name, since they are so conveniently displayed on the front breast pocket of their uniforms, I saved the space in my brain for more important things. The deputy, whose uniform informed me that his name was 'Smith' and I was almost embarrassed that I hadn't remembered something so simple, informed us that Lamb was out, and there for we would have to take a seat and wait.

"Wow, you mean, Lamb is actually doing his job? No, wait, that can't be right. He went out to grab lunch didn't he, that sneaky devil, he's just trying to avoid me." Deputy Smith looked a bit ashamed, but I didn't really feel the need to care much. "Actually, I'm here to speak with Leo, and look, I see him right there at his desk, so if you'll excuse me." I try to slide past Smith, who continues to block my way.

"I'm sorry, I've been asked to keep you from behind the desk, it seems you tend to cause trouble."

Weevil took the opportunity to walk right past the deputy, while he was preoccupied with me. Walking right up to Leo's desk and sitting down in the chair next to it. "Well, this feels familiar, though I don't usually come in here of my own freewill."

"Deputy Smith, you can let Veronica by, I've been expecting her." Leo informs the deputy, as he gets off the phone. I walk by the deputy and can't help but look smug as I do it.

I look directly at Weevil, who is sitting comfortably, or as comfortably as you can in an orange plastic chair. "Aren't you going to offer the lady your seat? It's the polite thing to do."

"If I saw a lady, V, I would get up without hesitation. You have two choices though, you can sit in my lap, or you can stand." He smiles, knowing that I find it cute. I take option A, knowing that he didn't think that I would. I sit crosswise over his legs, so that I face Leo, and smile my 'I'm just being cute and adorable, and don't feel that there is anything wrong with me sitting on the juvenile delinquent's lap' smile. Leo just shakes his head and goes to his computer.

"Okay, Veronica, I've run the plates though the database, and I've put out and APB on the bike. I just got off the phone with the San Diego Police department, and they have spotted the vehicle about ten miles outside of the city limits, in an abandoned parking lot. They say that they haven't seen anyone around it, or in the lot, and the engines cool, so it's been there at least a few hours, but you said your friend went missing sometime last night. So that wouldn't really be a surprise. I'll give you directions to get out there if you want."

"That would be great, thanks Leo."

"Hey, no problem, it always makes Lamb red when he sees that I'm doing a favor for you, it makes my day, just a bit."

"See, Weevil, its not just the head tilt that gets people to help me, it's the affect that help has on others." I turn and smile at him, and he looks a bit uncomfortable at my closeness, which give me the urge to kiss him right there, but if I really want to have something with him, I decide it would be a bad idea.

Once we leave the Sheriff's department, Weevil stops me before I get to his bike, pulling me towards him, and wrapping his arms around my waist. At first I tense up a bit, almost shocked at his abrupt need to be close to me, after his stiffness in the department, but the look on his face causes me to relax.

"I don't like to dance, either." He leans forward and rests his lips agents mine, the kiss is so much different then the one he initiated the night before, it's almost as if it's a different person. The kiss is soft and gentle, and wonderful. I open my lips to him, drawing his bottom lip into my mouth, slowly caressing it with my tongue. Before I know it, he has me pushed up agents the outside of the station, battling me for dominance over the kiss. He breaks away, panting. "See, no dancing, I just wanted to be away from all the prying eyes."

"I'm all in favor." I rest my forehead against his, and breathe in the smell of him. Men have a very distinctive smell, its dark and usually earthy, Weevil is no different, he smells like good earth, the kind that's ready for planting in the spring, he also smells like leather and motor oil, but not in a bad way, and a hint of cologne, which is almost completely over powered by his natural guy smell; just breathing him in makes me feel secure. It's a feeling that I have been looking for, without ever really knowing that I'm looking. Logan made me feel wanted, but in an over powering almost primal way that scared me and Duncan made me feel safe, in an almost boring way; Weevil made me feel both wanted and safe, but in a completely comfortable way, in a way that wasn't over powering or dull. I smiled up at him, knowing that I had to break the moment, or we would never get to the next step in our investigation. "We need to head out, though."

"I know, just let me breath for a moment." Weevil kissed me again, a simple chaste kiss, which had my toes curling.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Okay, I know that this chapter is really very short... but as I have to run out of the house and stuff... it had to be cut off... I promise that I will get a slightly longer one out as soon as I'm home!

Part 8

We learned nothing new from Mrs. Toombs, other then the fact that she wouldn't look me in the eye. She hadn't seen or heard from Felix since he had left two days before, and the fact that we where questioning her, upset her a great deal. I wanted more then anything, to help the woman, I wanted to provide some kind of comfort, but she wouldn't even acknowledge that I was in the room. Any question that I posed to her, she would answer looking at Weevil, as if he had asked. I had never really had to deal with the racial issues in Neptune, mainly because the socio-economic issues had over shadowed them by so much. I was part of Weevil's neighborhood; I lived only a few blocks from him, I wasn't an '09er when it came down to it. Before my father had lost his job, everyone gave me a bit of respect, I was the Sheriff's daughter, and I was outside of the socio-economic classes, because my father was an equal opportunity sheriff, unlike Lamb, who heavily favored the '09ers. In Mrs. Toombs house, she didn't see the sheriff's daughter, or the girl who lived down the block, to her, I was a white girl, and I had entered her house on the arm of one of the good boys of the neighborhood, one of the boys that, if he left the gang, and put his mind to it, he could go to college and make something of himself. She didn't at all like the fact that he was associating with yet another white girl, and she didn't even have to say anything for me to know this, her expression told me everything.

I was completely at a loss of what to do. I usually adapt well to situations and can morph myself to fit in just about anywhere, and if I can't, I adapt an 'I don't care' attitude. In the Toombs house, I couldn't do either. I wanted desperately to take Weevil's hand, hoping that that would make the discomfort level lessen, but knowing that doing that would just make Mrs. Toombs even more hostile towards me. If the worst she was going to do was ignore me, I could handle that, or at least that was what I kept telling myself.

The twenty minutes inside that house where some of the longest of my life. When Weevil and I took our leave, and stepped out the door, it was like I could breathe again, like all of a sudden the air was movable, inside the house the air had been almost too heavy for me to breathe.

"I'm sorry about her." Weevil's face was so sad I wanted to cry, and hold him and tell him everything would be alright.

"She hates me. Is it because of Lilly?" I watch him lean against the brick wall surrounding the Toombs' house.

"Partially, part of it is because she doesn't think you belong down here, she wants to see me with someone a bit more of the neighborhood."

"I understand, I've just never really felt that out of place before. I've lived in Neptune my entire life, I've dealt with the '09er's crap for a year and a half, and I've had to live outside of their world for most of my childhood, the only break I got was being Lilly's friend, but that hostility was something I've never known."

"I have." The sentence was so simple that I almost missed its meaning.

"I'm sorry."

"V, you have never done anything to be sorry for. You've never treated me any different then anyone else. Sure, you stayed away from me before Lilly died, but that's understandable. You've never made me feel like I was different, or outside because of my skin color or my economic standing."

"Well, your economic standing on most days is better then mine." I smiled trying to lighten the mood; our conversation had gotten entirely too heavy for the Toombs' front yard. Weevil returned my smile, though I knew that the conversation wasn't over, this would be something that would come up time and again if we decided to pursue any kind of relationship. Not only would we have to think about it here in the Neighborhood, but also at school. The upside being, that I was pretty sure that my father and my friends would say nothing, after the initial shock.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: As promised, another new chapter, since my last one was so very short. Enjoy! And don't forget to send feedback!

Part 9

The ride to San Diego was heavy with thought, both of us trapped in our own worlds. My mind was a clutter of my issues with Duncan, thoughts of how we where going to deal with the brother sister issue, where we going to tell anyone, was it going to be public knowledge, would we only tell those close to us? How was Monday going to go, what would the fall out be with Logan and the knowledge that his father had not only killed his girlfriend a year and a half before, but had also been having sex with her, was going to be all over school; what kind of fall out would that bring on Logan, and how where we going to support him though it? Then the new question, the one that I hadn't even really thought of until an hour before, where did Weevil fit into all of this?

We stopped at a small diner on our way to San Diego, because now that it was well after two in the afternoon, my stomach was protesting heavily about the lack of food for it to digest. We sat staring at each other across the plastic table, neither of us really knowing how to deal with our issues, both separate and combined. I decided to start with a topic outside of our shared discomfort, wanting a sounding board for my issues with Duncan and the Kane family.

"You saw the contract I signed for the Kane's?"

"Yeah," Weevil seemed relieved that I had chosen a less weighty topic for him to deal with. "I was wondering why you had done it that could have been the end of your financial troubles forever."

"I did it for dad, and I did it before I knew the results of the DNA test. I never wanted their money, sure it would make life easer, but I guess to a degree, I didn't want to believe that Jake Kane could in anyway be my father, and by signing that contract I was sealing that fate. I guess I was wrong."

"Do you mind if I ask you questions about it, about you and Duncan, and what happens on Monday?" He looked concerned, like this had been weighing on this mind like it had been threatening to crush mine.

"You can ask, I can't guarantee that I have an answer for them."

"You and Duncan dated for a long time." Weevil let the statement hang in the air between us, giving me the opportunity to stop him before he went on. "Your not going to advertise that you know that you're a Kane are you, I mean, and I'm saying this only because I can't think of a better way, that's incest, it wont go over with the people at school, you take enough crap from them."

"Oh, and there's more to it then Duncan and I dating." I take a deep breath in, wondering if I should go for full disclosure, wondering if I can tell Weevil about Shelley's party, about the GHB. He knew that I had been avoiding Logan for a while, that I had been asking questions about the party and what other people remembered, but I had never really told him anything that he didn't hear in the hallways at school.

"You don't have to tell me anything that you don't want to." He placed his hand over mine on the surface of the slightly sticky plastic table.

"I want to, I need to tell someone. I haven't been able to talk about it yet, and I can't with Logan, and Wallace doesn't really know what's going on. I cried to him once already, and I'm not the kind of girl who does that. I don't know if I can again."

"Then save it, we'll go for a ride after school on Monday and you can let all your frustrations out then, I'm sure you will have more after facing everyone at school. Your going to stand by the boys on Monday aren't you?"

I looked Weevil in the eyes then, surprised at the fact that he knew that without me having to tell him. "How do you know?"

"Your one of the good guys, Veronica Mars." He smiled at me, as the waitress set down our food, a knowing, easy smile, and I wanted to reach over the table and hug him, I wanted to feel him in my arms at that moment, because I knew that whatever decision we made about our relationship, how ever this weekend ended, I would have him at my back, and that, on top of knowing that my dad and I where going to be alright, made everything seem a little less difficult. This time, when I went back to reality, when I faced school again, I was going to be alright, I had protection from the bad guys.

"It's not going to be easy for us, is it?"

"Not any harder then anything you've faced this year."

"It's going to hurt you in the PCH, though. Dating a white girl isn't only taboo with Mrs. Toombs; your boys are going to give you shit."

"Not if you stick by them, too. All we have to do is make it clear that you've got my back, that it's not just a one way thing."

I picked a fry off of his plate and pretended to contemplate what he had said. "I don't think that's a problem. But just so you know, I'm all out of 'Get out of Jail free' cards, the last one was almost to pricy."

"Can I ask you what if cost?"

"No, but I'll tell you anyway." I popped another one of his fries in my mouth, "I told Mrs. Kane to drop the charges against you, and I would look for Duncan free of charge. It's a good thing dad found him and not me, otherwise we would be out 50 grand."

"Don't do favors for that woman on my behalf, Chica." He stopped my hand from taking another fry off his plate. "Eat your own." He smiled, letting me know that he wasn't upset at me, for either making a deal with Celeste or for stealing his fries.

"Did we just make a decision?"

"Yeah, on Monday, you get to walk into school with your boys, but you are going to have to remember, that at lunch, I'm going to expect my girlfriend to sit with me." He turned over the hand that he had grabbed and traced patterns on my palm.

"I think that's something that I can deal with, but I may have three boys that are very upset that I'm not sitting with them. Wallace in particular, since he's a bit uneasy around Duncan and Logan."

"Wallace is welcome, it might take too much convincing to let Kane and Echolls sit at the PCH table."

"They'll just have to understand." And it would take some really sweet talking on my part, since I left school on Friday Logan's girlfriend.

Lunch finished with casual conversation, though Weevil refused to give me my hand back. At the back of my mind, I knew our next conversation would have to be about Lilly, we had said our good-byes, but there was still lingering questions that I wanted to ask Weevil, and I knew from Logan about the tattoo on his back. I new what ever they had had was long since over, and Weevil had moved on, I just wanted to know a bit about the side of my best friend that I didn't get to know before she died, and the only person that could tell me was Weevil.

"My dad is just going to be beside himself with the knowledge that I'm a PCHer's girlfriend." I smiled, knowing that Dad would take it in stride, there would probably be yelling and some stern lectures in my future, but nothing that would deter me from seeing the man in front of me, the man who was quickly breaking down all of my carefully constructed walls, the ones that I had spent so much time cultivating, and for once, I wasn't scared of what would happen. Of all the things that had happened in the past two days, this was the one thing that was making everything else seem bearable.

"I get another lecture don't I?" Weevil pretended to look scared, though I could see the hesitation in his eyes.

"Probably another one about how dispensable you are, and one about dad's hand gun, and then one about, if you get me pregnant my father will castrate you. He'll probably also come up with a new one just for you, involving getting me arrested."

"So, no getting you arrested, and very very safe sex. I can handle that."

"Yeah, and then I get to call you and tell you all about the fun lectures dads going to give me."

"That I can also handle. You, on the other hand, get to come and have dinner at my house, and let my grandmother teach you how to cook. You'll like my family."

"I've met your grandmother, and she can try to teach me how to cook, I'd like to be able to make something other then Snickerdoodles." He raised his eyebrows at me, "I make them for Wallace and put them in his locker, it's a residual Pep squad thing."

"Is my girlfriend going to make me cookies?"  
"Do you want yours to be in Spirit Boxes, too?"

"And with that, I'm changing the subject. Are we ready to find Felix's bike, and when we find it, what on earth are we going to do with it, since you don't know how to drive a motorcycle?"

"That is a very good question."


	10. Chapter 10

Part 10

If you asked most people, they would say that I have no fear of confrontation; they would be wrong. The idea of talking to Weevil about Lilly scared me, not so much in what he would have to say, but the thought of the emotions it would evoke. In the past two days I had really run the gambit of emotional upheaval, I had gone from typical high school student who did detective work on the side, to finding out that my ex-boyfriend was my brother, to watching he Aaron Echolls Lilly Kane sex tapes, to breaking up with my new boyfriend, to starting a new case for the local juvenile delinquent of choice, to wanting to jump said juvenile delinquent, to entering into a relationship with him. There was nothing in the world I would rather do then avoid any kind of confrontation that would lead to more emotional crap, I really wanted to leave all of my thoughts of Lilly and the part of her I didn't know, until next week, when my brain had had a chance to settle a bit, and digest all of the things that had been thrown at it. Then again, another part of me just wanted to have it over with, to talk to Weevil about the elephant in the room, in hopes that it would then find another room to lurk in, the problem was, I had no idea where to start.

I spent the better part of the trip to Felix's bike in thought, trying to find the best way to broach to subject. Once at the bike I was completely distracted by the nonchalant attitude that the bike seemed to exude, while it sat there completely unassumingly, doing nothing out of the ordinary. The bike was parked under a street light, no keys, on its kickstand, and totally normal, other then the fact that it was stuck out in the middle of no where. I took a few picture of the area, studied the dials on the bike, and learned exactly nothing, other then the fact that we now had another bike to deal with, and no one to ride it and get it home. Weevil produced a key to the bike, which didn't help us at all.

"Well, we're just going to have to come back here with a car. Too bad I don't know how to ride one of these." I look pointedly at Weevil, hoping that he will catch on to what I'm hinting at.

"I'm not teaching you to ride on my bike, we will barrow one of the beat up ones at Angel's shop, but you're not taking my girl out."

"I thought I was your girl," I pout. "You don't love me anymore, is it that I won't sleep with you, because you know how I feel about pressure."

"Yes, it's the fact that you won't sleep with me, there is nothing I like less then a girl who is a tease." He roles his eyes at me.

"Lets get out of here, there's nothing to find." I put on my helmet and move to let Weevil get on the bike.

"You get on first; I want you to learn how to move with the bike, before I even think about teaching you to ride on your own." He pushes me to the bike and helps me get on the front, it's harder to balance and swing myself over without the solid hold on his body, but I do it, and feel him swing himself onto the bike behind me. It is possibly the most erotic feeling I've had the pleasure of experiencing, feeling him wrap his legs around me, sitting securely in the crook of his body. Once he's on, he pushes me forward so that he can place his feet, I feel a little awkward being this far up on the bike, and the lack of anything to really hold onto scares me, but his arms wrap around me on the handlebars, and the cage of his body gives me a bit more confidence. He instructs me to lean back into him, so that I can feel how he moves with the bike, and starts the engine, which leads to another awkward moment of him reaching between my legs to get to the ignition, but I trust him, and am rewarded with the hum and vibrations of the bike and the feel of his body moving with mine as he pulls the bike out of the parking lot and onto the streets heading home.

The sand is warm under my legs, as Weevil and I watch the sun set over the ocean. The ride back had been educational, and proved to push my thoughts away, but now it was time to talk about Lilly, and I felt my mouth go dry.

"Tell me about Lilly." I jump right in, like pulling off a band-aid, the faster you do it, the less it hurts, in theory; of course, when you're ripping off a band-aid, you don't have to take its pain into consideration.

"What do you want to know? She was your best friend, shouldn't I be asking you?" Weevil looked distant, watching the sunset so intently; I thought it might jump below the horizon, just to get out of his line of sight.

"Tell me about the parts that she didn't show me." I wrap my arm around his waist and cuddle into his body, trying to let him know that I don't want to put distance between us by bringing up Lilly, but that I want to bring him closer with this talk.

"She loved you, she loved you so much that she even talked with me about you, and Lilly and I didn't do a whole lot of talking. She talked about you more then she ever talked about herself, I almost felt like I wasn't with Lilly at all sometimes, but a sounding board for what she wanted you to become. She wanted you to come out of your shell, to push beyond her shadow; she wanted you to become her equal, to rule the school with her." Weevil put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me even closer to him. "She would be so proud of what you have become, how strong you are now."

"I see her sometimes, you know, since she died. She's told me how proud she is. I know that it's not real, and that it's just my mind giving me comfort, but I like to think it's really her, that she really can still see me."

"She sees you."

"I want to see it." I can feel the tears leaking out of my eyes, running down my face, but this time they don't hurt, talking about Lilly with Weevil doesn't hurt, and I'm almost relieved.

"See what, chica?" Weevil's not looking at me anymore, but he's not glaring at the sun either, simply watching, at ease with our talk.

"The tattoo, Logan told me about it. I know you said it was your little sister's name," I let the sentence trail off there, letting Weevil take over to show and tell the way he pleases.

"Yeah, it's Lilly, our Lilly. But you've got to understand," Weevil shifts uncomfortably, pulling away from me a bit, and pulling his wife-beater over his head, leaving him naked from the waist up, and I drift off a bit, superimposing the image over the images my mind came up with the day before; the real thing is definitely better then what my brain came up with.

"I understand. You don't have to justify your heart to me; you don't even have to justify your tattoos to me. Its your body, you can ink it in any way you want, just don't ask me to do it, and just as a heads up, if you want to get anything symbolizing me, its not going to be a heart with my name in it." Weevil rewards me with a smile, and then turns his back to me. I trace over the letters of my best friends name, my tears are clouding my vision now, and I have to wipe them away. "She's really gone. I miss her so much." Weevil's shirt is completely forgotten as he pulls me into his arms. I cry on his shoulder for the second time in two days, and I can't help but feel a little weak. I can feel the tears run down his chest and soak into my shirt as he rubs soothing circles on my back.

"It's okay, Veronica," Weevil utters soothing Spanish into my ear, none of it I know, even with my working knowledge of the Spanish language, not that it really matters what he says, just that he says it. While I cry, something in me vows to let my emotions show with this man, something that I don't do easily, he will keep my heart safe, even with the swift pace that this relationship has taken, I know he's not going to throw my emotions back in my face.

"Will you take me home to my daddy now?" I feel like a little girl asking him, but the look on his face tells me its okay, that missing my friend, a friend both of us loved to an extent, is a perfectly fine time to be a child, to want my father. It's okay for me to ask my boyfriend to take me home so that I can get comfort from someone else. "Will you stay though, when we get home, will you stay with me?"


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Just a bit of a taste that I wrote before heading off to work... I promise more soon!

Part 11

Weevil carried me up to the apartment, I was already half asleep when he lifted me off his bike. I don't even remember getting to the door. I woke up around three in the morning and I could hear my dads and Weevil's voices in the living room. I half expected them to be talking about me, but they weren't, they where talking about school, about Weevil's plans for the future. I listened though my open bedroom door, as they chatted amicably, I could only guess that Weevil hadn't yet told my father about our new relationship status, and I thought that that was wise, letting my father get to know the Weevil that I knew before disclosing that kind of information; plus, I kind of wanted to break the news to my father. I was perfectly happy to have Weevil there when I did it, I just wanted to be the one to say the words.

"What are your plans after high school, Eli?" I knew that Weevil didn't really like being called by his given name; it reminded him how far from that person he had come in the past six years. We had talked about it once, I asked if he would rather be called Eli, Cassidy liked his given name over his nickname, and I thought it only fair to give Weevil the choice as well. Weevil had been pretty adamant about being called by his nickname, I think to some extent it had to do with his status in the PCH, but he said that it's the person that he was and wanted to be called by the name that he identified with, and I could respect that.

"I'm not really sure, Keith. I know my grandma wants me to go to college, she says that I can be the first Navarro to break the cycle, and I want to do that, I just don't know if I can." I was so happy when Weevil called my father by his name; maybe this was really going to work.

"Stick with Veronica; she'll get you on the right track."

"Excuse me?" I could hear surprise in Weevil's voice.

"You have feelings for my daughter, don't you?" There was a pause, I assume that Weevil nodded, because my father went on, "Stick with her; I know how highly she thinks of you. If you want to go to college, if you want to make something of yourself, she'll push you to do it."

"I'm worried about her. She's been a wreck these past few days." That surprised me, I knew I had been a mess, I knew that Weevil knew about everything that I was going though, I just didn't expect him to talk to my father about it.

"You know what's been going on, I assume she told you about it."

"Sort of, she left some documents on the table, and I kind of snooped." I commended Weevil for his honestly; it's hard to do around my father.

Dad let out a short burst of laughter, "You and my daughter, sticking your noses into everything."

"But, I'm more worried about how she's handling the end of the Lilly Kane investigation. I think that it's just hitting her that she's finally mourning for Lilly, and with everything else that's been happening, she's going to really need some support."

"Yeah, I can see that, luckily this time around, she's going to have some great friends to hold her hand though this and she's got you. I know she's helping you find your friend, I hope you plan to stick around after this is all finished."

"Yes, sir. I plan to stick around as long as she'll let me."

I decided at this point to make my presence known. I walked out into the living room rubbing my eyes, and sat down on the couch with Weevil.

"You boys have a nice talk?" I looked between my father and Weevil, both of whom looked relaxed sitting together, Weevil holding a coffee mug filled with black coffee and my father drinking a glass of soda.

"Eli here was telling me about his hopes for college."

"Really, and what does he want to study at college?" I looked to Weevil to answer, since I knew they hadn't really gotten that far in the conversation.

"Art, I want to study art."

"You'll do great at it." I smiled and patted Weevil on the knee. "Daddy, Weevil and I have something to talk to you about."

"Must be something big for you to call me 'Daddy.'"


	12. Chapter 12

AN: I just want to thank everyone who has reviewed my story... I have to say that its really the thing that is keeping the story going... I enjoy every one of your reviews and I take into consideration every suggestion that you send in, even the ones that I don't use are appreciated... Huggs and Kisses to all my reviewers and future reviewers!

Part 12

Neither of us knows what to say to my father's comment, a little voice in the back of my head tells me that its encouraging though, for him to joke. I take Weevil's hand in mine, and shift closer to him on the couch. We sit in silence as Weevil and I take a moment to collect our thoughts and communicate to each other encouragement, though a series of hand squeezes.

"Daddy," I pause again, trying to come up with the best way to tell my father that I'm dating the juvenile delinquent that he started picking up at the age of twelve, that the guy that my father didn't even like me to be in a room with only a few months ago is now kissing his beloved only daughter.

"Mr. Mars, I like your daughter very much." I want to kiss Weevil right at that moment, I want nothing more then to show him how appreciative I am, and how brave I think he is for helping me and telling my father, but I know I can't make him do it all on his own, I need my inner bad-ass to come up with something quick.

"Weevil and I are dating." I just jump right in, commit to what I need to say and do it, and I'm rewarded with my father not hitting my boyfriend.

"How long, Veronica? Didn't you just break up with Logan?" My father looks shocked, but not angry, which is definitely a good thing.

"Well, it kind of started yesterday, Weevil came over after he heard about Aaron, and he wanted to see how I was, and needed help with Felix's disappearance. We took my bike to the shop, and things just kind of fell into place. We talked today, and we decided that we want to pursue a relationship." I look hopefully at my father, whose face is almost completely blank, my father give cop face like no one else I know.

"I've got to say, it's an improvement over Logan." He stands and holds his hand out to Weevil, who takes it. They shake hands, but I know that my father hasn't had the last word yet. "You hurt her, and I'll kill you slowly. And don't forget anything that I said this morning."

"I have no intention of hurting your daughter." Weevil looks my dad in the eyes as he says this, and I just watch in aw as the men in my life size each other up.

"That means no jail time because of you and I don't want to have to pick her up from the hospital either."  
"I will do everything in my power to keep her safe."

"Veronica, do you mind if I finish this conversation with Eli without you?"

"I'll be in my room." I walk into my room, and hear the door to the apartment shut. My father knows me too well; he knows that if they had stayed in the living room I would have listened in at the door. I take the time that I'm alone to give Leo a call. I know that I rely too much on the Deputy, but I also know, it's good to have friends in the Sheriff's department, especially since the sheriff himself is completely incompetent.

"Veronica Mars, to what do I owe this late night phone call. If this is booty call, I have to tell you, I'm taken." Leo and I have finally reached a middle ground after I unceremoniously dumped him only a few months before.

"Oh, but Deputy Leo, you told me you would always wait for me, that you knew deep down inside I loved you and now one else." I let a little southern drawl sneak in there, just for fun, and I hear him chuckle on the other end of the phone.

"What can I do for you, Veronica?"

"We checked out the bike and there's nothing. I want to file an official missing persons report, but I don't want to mention anything about the PCH or Weevil; this is strictly me filing a report on a friend who I found missing."

"I can do that, but I need you to tell me what's going on later."

"As soon as I know something, we can have one of our 'your not a deputy and I'm not your ex-girlfriend who happens to be the ex-sheriff's daughter' coffee meetings."

"You know how much I look forward to being in the loop." Yep, and that's how we have found our common ground, I keep Leo in the loop and he looks the other way when I ask questions and favors.

"I also want to check all of the hospitals and morgues around Neptune and San Diego."

"You mean you don't have a doctor friend who can do that for you?"  
"Very funny, can you do that?"  
"I'll do everything I can."

"I don't want him found in a morgue."

"I can't promise anything, Veronica. But for your sake, and for your friends, I hope that we don't find him in one. I'll give you a call as soon as I know anything."

I hang up with Leo, and check my e-mail. My phone rings a few minutes later, Duncan's number flashes on my caller-ID, and I debate as to whether or not to pick up. On the one hand, I do owe it to him to talk about the whole brother-sister thing, but on the other, I've had so much emotional upheaval in the past two days, I don't know if I can stand it. I wait three rings before giving in and answering the phone.

"Veronica, do you think you can pick Logan and me up?" I can tell Duncan's drunk without even having to hear him say it. Duncan is one of those drunks who is almost completely incomprehensible, I know that if he's calling me, it's only because Logan is feeding him the words.

"Duncan, let me talk to Logan." I hear shuffling on the other end of the phone and whispered conversation, which makes increasingly less sense.

"Ronnie!" I cringe. "How are you doing?"

"I was doing better before my ex-boyfriend and my brother called me drunk at four am asking for a ride, because the two of you got too drunk to get home."

"Please Ronnie, we promise to be good."

"Where are you?"

"At Dick's house, he started getting mean when he got drunk, and kicked us out, something about not wanting anyone to catch the murder's son in his house in the morning." My heart breaks just a bit for Logan; this is only the beginning of how bad it's going to be for him.

"Weevil and I will be around in a minute. We'll have to borrow my dad's car."

"What are you doing with Weevil?"

"I'll tell you when you're sober."

"You like him don't you, its okay Ronnie, I know you like him."

"Yeah, Logan, I like him a lot. Please don't screw this up for me."

"I'll try, for the sake of our friendship." He sounds sarcastic when he says 'friendship' but I know that he will try not to do anything that will hurt me. He really wants to be my friend, and that means more to me then anything he did or said when we where dating. He knows that he needs to stick by me, he needs the friends right now.


	13. Chapter 13

Part 13

It didn't take much to get dad to let us borrow the car, as soon as the words 'Logan,' 'drunk,' and 'Dick's house' where out of my mouth, dad was already handing over the keys. Weevil was a little bit harder to convince.

"What are you doing rescuing those boys. Don't they live like three blocks from there anyway?"

"You've never seen Duncan drunk." I thought back to the time that we all played poker at Logan's, but that wasn't Duncan drunk, that was Duncan pretending to be drunk, which is not at all the same thing. To say that Duncan was a lousy drunk would be an understatement, when he drank he could barely walk, let alone perform simple tasks like finding his way home. "Anyway, there won't be anyone at either of their houses. Duncan's parents now have to deal with the fall out of covering up Lilly's murder and Logan's dads in jail."

"So, you need me to get them in the car, then onto the couch at your house?"

"See, this is why I'm dating you, but they're going to sleep in my room, I'm taking the couch, for the final three hours of the night. Then, while they sleep it off, we are going to go out for the day."

"You're dating me for my muscle?"

"No, you're brain, keep up." I stick the keys in the ignition, and get the chance to drive Weevil around; who looks very uncomfortable in the car, like the idea of four walls surrounding him while in a moving vehicle is too much. I open his window and he just glares at me.

"I'm not a dog; you don't have to keep the window cracked."

"I never said you where, but if I catch you sticking your head out, I'll have my doubts."

The rest of the ride was in relative silence, neither of us feeling the need to fill it; it was comfortable, just being able to enjoy each others company. With Logan, I had always needed the radio on, or conversation to be happening, to go anywhere at night with him in the car. With Weevil, the silence was nice; his presence pushed away my thoughts, but at the same time filled them with the promise of what was to come. I realized that I was at peace with him around, and if I really thought back on it, he had brought that peace to me for a good part of the year. With him around there was one less thing that I had to worry about, my emotional safety, sure the two of us bantered back and forth, we said things to each other that could be construed as odd and or hurtful at times, but the knowledge that neither of us really meant them was the safe part.

"I feel the need to apologize in advance for both Logan and Duncan." I turned onto Dick's street, and could see the boys from the corner. When they said that Dick had thrown them out, I was expecting them to be sitting on the front steps, not outside the gates.

"You don't need to apologize for them." Weevil laid his hand on my thigh, giving it an affectionate squeeze, and then leaving it there, rubbing circles, soothingly against the fabric of my jeans.

"Trust me, I do. Logan knows about us, and I'm pretty sure in his drunken state he's going to do or say something that he's going to regret in the morning, I'm just giving you a heads up. I have no idea what to expect from Duncan." I pulled to a stop in front of the Cassabloncas' Estate. Weevil ran his fingers through my hair, and gave me a quick chaste kiss before turning to get out of the car.

"I'll be fine." He said, all too soon, getting out of the car, and immediately getting vomited on by Duncan. "Right after I kill this white boy." Duncan looked slightly amused, but quickly changed his tactic and tried to get away from the biker.

"Ronnie! I knew you would come for us, you're such a good little rescuer." Logan threw his arms around me as soon as I was out of the car. "Can I ask you something?"

"Only if you feel that it is appropriate for present company, if you think that Weevil might kill you for asking, I suggest that you wait until you're sober." His breath was deadly in my face, "Logan, you have to let go of me and get in the car."

"Did you ever love me?" He looked so lost, his eyes brimmed with tears.

"Logan, if this isn't love, I don't know what is, get in the car."

"You only came to get me because Duncan called, you have to love him, it's like in the rules, even though you only found out he was your brother like yesterday." He pouted, but let go of me, and fell into the back seat of the car.

"I came because you needed me too. Now, if you throw-up in the car, my dad will not hesitate to kill you." I buckled his seatbelt for him, and opened the window.

Weevil was having a bit more trouble with Duncan, who seemed to be giving him the drunken version of the 'You hurt my sister and I'll kill you' speech, only Duncan's version sounded more like 'You hurt my sister and something really really, you have no hair' then Duncan proceeded to point continuously at Weevil, and tried to look menacing before he fell over. In the end it took both of us to pick him up and deposit him in the car. We opened his window and leaned his head out of it, because the jarring it took to get him into the car caused him to look a little green.

"How are we going to get them in the house?" Weevil kept turning around in his seat on our drive home to check on them, and make sure Duncan didn't try to escape the car, since he had already done that once, when we stopped at a stop light.

"We are going to enlist dad's help."

"He'll be happy about that.'

"Yeah, but it will get them both inside. And then I have the fun job of making sure that they don't vomit all over themselves in my bed."

"Are you sure you don't want some kind of help with that?"

"One of us has to sleep, and you're the one driving in the morning."

"What are we doing in the morning?" In all the commotion of dealing with the boys, I hadn't had the chance to fill Weevil in on my conversation with Leo.

"I talked to Leo before Logan and Duncan called, he's filing an official missing persons report on Felix, so that we can find out if he's been checked into any hospitals in the area, and in San Diego. Tomorrow, we're going to go up to the San Diego PD and talk to someone local up there."

"You filed a missing persons report? You know they're not going to take me seriously."

"That's why I filed it under my name."

"This is why I date you."

"So you can use me for my crime fighting abilities?" I smile at him, patting his leg and then intertwining our fingers.

"No, for your brain, keep up." He chuckles at his joke, and I join him, until I hear vomiting in the back seat.

"Logan, that better have been out the window."

"Sorry, Ms. Mars."


	14. Chapter 14

AN: I promise that the next chapter will be back to school, but sunday morning has to happen first... keep reviewing!

Part 14

Duncan becomes a bit of a wet noodle when he drinks, after about fifteen minutes in the car he's asleep, which is a pain in the ass to deal with. Logan on the other hand becomes chatty; he wants to talk about everything, which is almost as bit a pain as Duncan's semi-unconsciousness. Logan started talking about the night, about going over to Dick's house so that they could unwind, Dick being about as smart as the carpet, hadn't heard about Logan's dad yet, and was thrilled to have them over. About three in the morning, someone let it slip, wondering why the murder's son was hanging out at the house, this got Duncan angry, which in turn got them both kicked out. Logan moved on to his father, cursing and yelling and crying about how horrible the man was, no one in the car felt inclined to disagree with Logan, the problem was the decibel level that Logan used to share the information, which got Weevil and I complaining. What really pissed me off, and I could tell that it was making Weevil a little more then uncomfortable, was Logan's decision to declare his unending love for me, then trying to hurl himself into my seat, luckily he didn't take his seatbelt off first, and only managed to ram himself right back into his seat. This was about the time that Weevil pronounced that he would be taking care of the boys, and I would be sleeping. I was tired and a little more then grumpy, so I just agreed to avoid anymore confrontation.

It took all three of us, me, Weevil and my father, to get Duncan into my room from the car. Logan spent that time cleaning up the mess he had made of the back seat, and was informed by my father that his throwing up had earned him the coveted floor bed. Logan said nothing, because at this point he had come down off of his buzz and was a bit more human, if not grumpy at the fact that he wasn't all that drunk anymore. Duncan was unconscious as soon as he was in bed, not that he was all that with it before.

Logan settled himself onto the floor of my bedroom and fell asleep. Weevil came out into the living room to tuck me in.

"I have this urge to comment on your choice of men." He sat down on the chair next to the couch while I made my bed.

"Are you counting yourself in this?"

"V, I'm the leader of a biker gang, I have a juvenile record that your father knows backwards and forwards, I'm not earning any points."

"But my father trusts you."

"That doesn't mean I didn't get a pretty hefty lecture on the consequences of my actions, I got a good one about, if either you or I end up in jail on anything but trumped up charges from Lamb, that I'm not aloud to see you again."

"Even if I land myself in jail?" I would be lying if I said that this surprised me.

"Yeah, even then." Weevil scooted closer to the couch as I laid down, stroking my hair, which was rapidly putting me to sleep.

"I'll do my best. But you got to do something for me."

"Anything."

"Go get the trash can out of the bathroom and put it between Logan and Duncan, one of them is going to need it before morning."

"How often do you do this?"

"Too often, remember, I've been friends with the two of them for a long time, it's just been a while since I've had to take care of both of them. Then again, back then there where three people for me to take care of."

"Your too good to them, V." He got up and did what I asked. I was asleep before he got back.

Sunday dawned entirely too early. Weevil was asleep, sitting up, on the chair next to the couch I had been sleeping on. We hadn't even been dating a day, and he had already slept over, I filed that tidbit away for further thought, and then went to check on the boys.

Duncan was still fast asleep, snoring loudly enough to wake the dead, funny how you forget about these fun facts, when you're away from someone long enough, you forget that they do things that really annoy you, entirely to preserve the memories that are good. Duncan's snoring was one of those things that I wished that I could continue to forget. Logan on the other hand, was not sleeping, though he was pretending to. He had his hand thrown over his eyes, in attempt to block out not only the sun, but I expect in attempt to block out Duncan's existence, he was doing a lousy job of both.

"Logan, I know you're awake." He groaned at me and tried to turn over, then thought better of it. "You only make that face when you're pretending to be asleep."

"Go away, your annoying."

"Get up, we'll get you in the shower, and you can use the bathroom, you'll feel better. I want you to throw up before I give you the aspirin, not after."

"You just want to get me naked."

"I said in the shower, not naked, I intend on putting you fully clothed in the shower, dad and Weevil are both still sleeping, and I'm not dealing with a hung over naked ex-boyfriend this morning, I've only had three hours of sleep, and I'm grumpy."

"I'm not going to throw up."

"Yes you are."

"Am not."

"What are you five? You always wake up; get in the shower and puke, it's what you do after a night of heavy drinking."

"It's not fair that you know me too well." He attempted to pout, and then turned green. "Okay, I'm ready for that shower now."

It took us almost five minutes to get to the bathroom, and then Logan sat on the toilet while I adjusted the temperature of the water, and helped him out of his shirt and jeans, before hauling him into the shower in his boxers. As predicted, ten minutes into his shower, Logan jumped out of the tub and proceeded to empty his stomach into the toilet, I sat dutifully by and rubbed his back until he was done, and got him back into the shower, and encouraged him to use soap.

Weevil stuck his head in the bathroom door, which was open.

"There you are, Duncan's up," he paused looking in at Logan's silhouette in the shower, "You're in the bathroom while Logan's in the shower?"

"Did you think I was sitting here contemplating the meaning of life?" I stood up and walked over to him, completely intent on giving him a good morning kiss, but he held me at arms length.

"I'm not okay with you watching another guy shower."

"He's wearing his boxers, its not like he's naked, and I'm only in here to make sure he doesn't fall and crack his head open." I try again to kiss him, and he lets me. The kiss is brief and I can tell that he's distracted and upset. "Here, now that your up, you can take Logan duty, I'll go deal with Duncan. Will that make you feel better?"

"I don't want to be your substitute; I don't want to be your guy if you're only with me because you can't be with him."

"What on earth gave you the impression that you where substituting for anything? Logan's my friend, and for the first time in over a year, he's actually acting like we're friends again. I think the only reason we dated was so that we could find this ground again, so that we could be friends. I know that sounds twisted, and it isn't supposed to work like that, but I think it was both of our ways of breaking our walls down again. I want to be with you, Weevil. I want everything, from the stubble you get after a few days without shaving your head, to the leer you get when you look at me and you don't think I'm looking, I've seen it, I've seen it for months now and for the first time, I'm ready for it, I'm ready for anything that you want to give me." I looked him straight in the eye, "I'm not Lilly, I'm never going to be her, I will never use you as a substitute for anything, I don't work that way."

"Okay, then why don't you attend to Logan, you know what your doing with him, I can get some water and aspirin into Duncan. Your dad's making coffee." He pulled me close, even though I knew my cloths where getting him wet, from my time getting Logan situated in the shower, and he kissed me, the kiss that I had been wanting when he first walked into the room. "I trust you."

"Good, because you don't have any reason not to." I watched him walk out of the room, and heard Logan jump out of the shower again to throw-up. I sighed and rubbed his back, and couldn't wait until Weevil and I where alone again.

Sunday ended up being a total bust. After cleaning up Logan and Duncan, and getting enough water and pain killers into them for them to function, dad took them over to the Kane estate to go back to sleep, in hopes that they would be fully functional for school the next day. While that was happening, Weevil and I traveled to the Sheriff's department so I could make sure that Leo put in the missing person's report, then we went to several hospitals in the area. In the end, we came up empty and found our way to an empty parking lot near Dog Beach, so that Weevil could teach me to ride his motorcycle. By the end of the day, I was able to ride it pretty effectively on my own, and we talked a bit about going later on in the week to get my license.


	15. Chapter 15

AN: Hey everyone, sorry this took so long to get out... its been a rough week, with spring happening in St. Louis, which means that I'm in bed most of the time, either due to my allergies or the meds that I take for them... but anyway... here it is... don't forget to review... it will make me feel much better!

Part 15

Monday dawned clear and bright, a perfect California morning; I had half expected it to be as gloomy and damp as my mood. I hadn't slept all night, worrying about what was to come at school. I hadn't been nearly this nervous the last time that I had to walk into school knowing full well that people where against me, of course this time I knew what to expect, and I had to held my head up for someone else, who actually had to attend school with me.

I took longer then usual picking out my cloths for school, I had to think about the fact that I would be spending the day with Logan and Duncan, but then also, leaving school with Weevil on his bike. The day was hot enough that the jeans I had picked out where a bit impractical, but looked great, and the tank top I was wearing would be a bit chilly later, but perfect for now. I grabbed my backpack and my helmet and ran out the door when I heard the distinct sound of Logan's horn outside.

Dad had headed out early that morning, to do an interview about the investigation, I had been called non-stop during the weekend, but I had foisted it all off onto dad, he needed the good press, and I didn't really have any intention on talking to the media, though I knew if they really wanted to, they would find me. Dad had been contacted about a book deal, by a reporter that he had been working with on the case, and with some prodding, he had agreed, after all, we needed the money.

Duncan was sitting in the backseat by the time I got to the car, he was looking a bit pale, but then again, he had had a rough weekend. Logan sat behind the wheel, staring straight ahead, not looking at me, actually doing everything he could to avoid my eyes.

"What are we going to say when we get to school?" Logan put the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot in front of my apartment complex.

"What do you mean?" I wasn't really sure what I wanted to say at school, all I knew is that we had to present a united front, that I had to walk into school with my head held high, with both Logan and Duncan at my side, we had to make sure everyone knew that Logan was not his father, and that we didn't blame him for what his father had done. I was only so optimistic about how the school would react to this, I knew that he would probably never be accepted back into the ranks of the '09er elite, but at least he would have a place; unlike I had at the beginning of the year.

"Ronnie, you're walking into school with a bike helmet, and I know you're going to be sitting with him at lunch, it's inevitable that people are going to figure out that your not with me anymore. You went to school Friday my girlfriend, and come Monday your with the leader of the PCH. People are going to talk, what if they say that you broke up with me because of my father; that you're only around me because you feel sorry for me?" He stopped at a light and turned to look at me, panic, like I had never seen before, was on his face. "What am I going to do?"

"You're going to walk into that school with Duncan and I, you're going to hold your head up, and you're going to give everyone your I don't give a shit, I'm the psychotic jackass, you have to love me because I'm Logan Echolls attitude, you're going to pretend like their whispers and staring doesn't affect you. You're going to do all of this, even though I am sitting with the PCH at lunch. You're going to sit at a table, away from the '09ers and your going to declare it your table, the cool table, and if you do this exactly like I tell you to, your going to be an outsider, but a confident, don't mess with me, outsider."

"What if I don't want to be an outsider, what if I want to be at the top of the social ladder again, what if I want to be at the '09er table?" He looked so lost, so scared, that I wanted to take him in my arms and tell him that everything would be alright, but I knew that it wouldn't, I knew that everything would be different.

"Then get ready for the harsh looks, the backpacks scooted over so that there is no space for you to sit. Be ready to face real scrutiny and anguish. I remember how it feels, and it's hard to make the choice, but you can. You can choose to try and fit back into their world, or you can build your own, and know that you have friends that are going to stick by you though everything." I smiled and patted his knee, "We are going to walk into that school together, not caring what they think, we are going to put my helmet in my locker, and then the three of us are going to go to yours and tare down whatever they have stuck up on it, and if your really good, I'm sure Weevil will glare at a few people for you, but only if you ask real nice."

"Okay, I'm ready." He wiped the scared look off his face, and it was replaced by the 'I don't give a shit' look I was so used to seeing. The school parking lot was getting ever closer, and I could see the PCH bike club parked in the lot, sitting on their bikes waiting. "And it looks like Weevil and his boys are waiting for us, I feel all honored." The hard edge of Logan's voice made me flinch a bit, but it also made me proud. He was going to be just fine.

Logan parked the XTerra in a space just to the outside of where the bikes where and well all piled out. Duncan hadn't said a word the entire ride, but looked a bit less peeked then he had when they picked me up. We locked the car and started heading to the school, with the PCHer's not far behind us. I felt a hand on the small of my back and turned, stopping our progress to the front doors.

"Mind if I walk in with you all?" Weevil had his back to the PCHer's, he looked a bit lost and unsure, I looked to Logan, after all, we where presenting a united front for him, he just inclined his head, indicating that it was fine with him.

"Of course you can walk with us." I smiled and pulled his arm around my waist, then extended my other hand to Logan, who took it, interweaving our fingers together. Duncan took up Logan's other side, decided not to touch his friend, but showing his support in a more manly way. Weevil dropped a quick kiss on my lips before we started again for the school.

I could feel everyone's looks as we walked up. They whispered their disbelief at the show they where getting. Not only was Duncan with Logan, but so was I. The bigger gossip was the PCH with us; they all stood to the back, trying to look unobtrusive, but also mean and vicious at the same time. They where failing at the unobtrusive, being that there where about twenty of them, and none of them where particularly small, but they rather affectively kept anyone from bothering us. I knew that before lunch I would be asked a million questions about why I was with Weevil, and what had happened to me and Logan, and if I was with Weevil, why I was holding Logan's hand. I also knew Logan would get the same questions. I just hoped that he ignored them like I planed to.


	16. Chapter 16

Part 16

The sneers and name calling where enough the first time around, I walked down the hall with Weevil on one side of me and Logan, clinging to my hand, while trying to look as confident and unaffected as he could, on the other side. Weevil's face was set in his trade mark 'I'm a bad-ass' sneer, Logan's poker face was perfect, and I could only imagine the cold look that I had plastered over my own features. On the inside, all I wanted to do was run back to the safety of the yellow XTerra and hide Logan away from all of this; I wanted to protect my friend from the hard year he had to face at Neptune High. The summer would hopefully make everything a little better, but as I had learned here only this past year, sometimes the edge is taken off, but when you betray the coolest kids in school, you're in for a rough ride no matter how much time is past.

Weevil and his boys left us at the first hallway, Logan, Duncan and I having out lockers on the other end of the building. Weevil gently kissed me on the head, and patted none to gently, Logan on the shoulder and nodded to Duncan, then took his leave, tilting his head indicating his boys to go with him. I could feel the loss of his warmth along my shoulders and back, and wanted to call him back; instead I took a deep breath and squeezed Logan's hand, and forced my face to stay neutral. After all, I would be abandoning my boys for lunch with the PCH Bike Club; the least I could do now was stand by them.

Logan's locker was papered with the news papers announcement of his father's arrest. Along with the picture of his father hand cuffed in the back of a Balboa County curser, were picture of Lilly from the year before, her eyes open and dead and blood running onto the Kane family deck, there where also pictures of Duncan and I at the police station after we turned in the tapes, watching as they brought Aaron into the station. I almost, at that moment, wished that I hadn't avoided the news papers, just so that I would be prepared for what I was looking at. Duncan and I stood on either side of Logan, so that no one else could see the tears slowly making their way down his face, as he knelt in front of his locker and tore down the pictures and the article. He crumpled them into a ball, and handed the whole mess to Duncan, who quickly threw them away. Logan wiped the tears from his face and turned to me.

"Well, at least I got to see your shining face on my locker this morning." He tried to smile, but the gesture just didn't make it all the way to his eyes.

"Do you think you can handle first period with Duncan, I promise to be bright and shiny in News Paper in an hour." I looked up into his eye, which where still wet with unshed tears and then down at our intertwined fingers, I wanted to say something, anything else, to make an inappropriate comment on how my boyfriend wouldn't like the way I was holding his hand, but it occurred to me, looking down at our hands, that my boyfriend wouldn't care; not because he didn't get jealous or because he was okay with me being with other guys, but because this guy was Logan, and as much as I will always love him, he was now like my brother, and I could pinpoint the exact moment that it had happened. It had happened the second the three of us had turned and looked at the video of Lilly and Aaron, when Aaron's face showed up on the screen, I realized that I had only been with Logan to hold onto the last moments of Lilly, I had been with him to feel what Lilly had felt, to know how she felt. To some extent, with Logan, I got to be Lilly, and that was the thought that made me realize that as pretty as Logan was to look at, I wasn't attracted to him in any kind of sexual way, and Weevil realized this too.

"I didn't mean to use you, Veronica." Logan pulled his hand away from mine, thinking that the look on my face meant that I was angry at him for thinking of me as an extension of Lilly.

"You didn't, we used each other." I looked him in the eyes and made a grab for his hand again, intertwining our fingers the way they where when we walked up to the school. "I wanted to feel like Lilly, I didn't know that that was what I was doing, but it was. I don't want to be Lilly, Logan, but I don't want to lose you either."

"So that's it, we're friends, and we can't be anything else. I mean, I knew that we wouldn't be together again once I saw you with Weevil, god, Veronica, I've seen the look in his eyes when he looks at you for months, but I didn't really think you saw."

"I saw, I just wasn't quite ready yet."

"And you are now."

"Yeah, I think I am, more then ready. Logan, he makes me feel safe and excited, it's the best parts of my relationships with you and Duncan, only without the other parts, the monotony from Duncan, and the lack of trust with us."

"You're happy?"

"As I can be at the moment," I let go of his hand then, and pull him into a hug. "I know we can't have Lilly back, but can the three of us be us again?"

"Didn't you ask that already?"  
"Yeah, I just wanted to ask again, now that things have changed. I want it to be the three of us, with what ever relationships we have outside of our group, I want us three to be together. God, do I sound sappy."

"That's why you're the girl in our group, don't change, I like your sappy girly moments." He turned to Duncan, who was back from grabbing his books from his locker. "What do you say, buddy, think we can be the Three Musketeers again?"

"Again?" Duncan looked confused, "I don't really remember us ever being the Three Musketeers, there was always four."

"Well, big bro, now its three."

"Don't call me that here, people will talk." Duncan's ears turned a bit pink.

"Okay, I get to be Porthos." Logan grins and pretends to take a hat off his head and bows dramatically.

"Of course you would be the arrogant one. Fine I'm Athos, I keep my secrets well, and my job is to know what crimes everyone else had committed." I steeple my fingers together and do my best to look sinister.

"Logan, you read?" Duncan looks shocked, and is rewarded by a swipe at the back of his head from Logan. "And how did I end up the pious one?"

"Just suits." The bell rings before Logan can go on, and we all head our separate directions to class.

Lunch came entirely too quickly for my own liking. I was beyond nervous about leaving Logan and Duncan at a table alone with Wallace, though I knew Duncan and Wallace got along well enough. I had seen Meg around school, but she had been avoiding both Duncan and I since Logan's party.

"Duncan, either go apologize to her, or stop trying to watch her without her noticing, she can see you, and so can everyone else."

"I went nuts, Ronnie, I can't face her." My old nickname seemed to have found its way back, along with our easy camaraderie.

"Go over there and talk to her, or I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and take you there myself." I put my hands on my hips and try my best to look like I mean it.

"Now, that would be something I would pay to see." Logan joins us at my old table, before I head over to sit with my biker boyfriend.

"Okay, I'm going, but if she throws something at me or pours something on me, I'm so blaming you two." Duncan walks away leaving just Logan and I standing in the sun.

"You going to be okay for lunch?"

"I'm a big boy, Ronnie, I can handle myself."

"Okay, but just incase, here's Wallace. Be nice, talk about sports. Hey, and maybe Duncan and Meg will join you soon, she hasn't thrown anything at him yet." Which was true, though she was yelling at him quite a lot, though to his credit, Duncan was looking appropriately chastised.

When it looked like everything was going to be as good as it could, I left to go sit with Weevil.

I sat down on the bench next to Weevil, more then a little nervous about sitting with the PCHer's. Weevil I was used to, but the others scared me a bit, to be honest, the only other PCHer I had liked was Felix, if only because he was Weevil's right hand, and I knew he would never hurt me.

"Oh, no. Blondie is not sitting here. We've got business to discuss." Thumper stood up, trying to use his height to intimidate Weevil.

"Its okay, Weevil, I'll…" I stood up and started to move away, but Weevil shot his hand out and caught me around the waist, propelling me back to him, sitting me rather forcefully in his lap.

"You're not going anywhere, Chica. Thumper, sit your ass down. The last I checked, I was in charge, and I say V's cool. You got a problem with my girlfriend; we'll settle this later, for now, eat." Weevil tightened his arm around my waist reassuringly, while he downed his soda.


	17. Chapter 17

AN: Hey, sorry this took so long, but here it is, part 17... wow is that a lot of words... anyway, enjoy! and don't forget to give you author some love... it makes me happy!

Part 17

The school day finished without anything really happening, well, anything that we hadn't been prepared for. Logan put up the 'Out of Order' sign on the girl's bathroom right before seventh period, just needing a break from everyone; halfway through the period I went to check on him, and spent the rest of the period with him in the bathroom, just letting him talk. Given the right ear, Logan will talk about anything, if you give him a chance, he's really an open guy; you just have to give him that chance. Looking back on it, I hadn't really given him that chance since before Lilly died, I froze him out, partially because I was unwilling to let go of Lilly and my vision of her, and partially because he changed, or let everyone think he changed, after she died. Logan talked about our last Homecoming together, when it was the four of us. He remembered the dares we made, and the game of 'I Never,' he just wanted to remember, with someone else who was there, someone who loved Lilly.

"Did you ever get that chance to go skinny dipping?" Logan asked, not to be crass, he didn't even lift his eyebrows or attempt to leer at me, he kept his eyes firmly planted on his bottle of water, while he sat on the sinks in the girl's bathroom.

"Yeah, right before Homecoming this year, and I wore red satin for Lilly, too." I smiled at the memory; Lilly spent forever trying to get me out of pastels and frilly dresses.

"I remember. She would have been so proud of you."

"You cared to remember?"

"Just cuz I was mad at you, Ronnie, doesn't mean I ever stopped caring or looking for you. I've been a jerk this year, to you specifically, and I'm really sorry. I wanted you to hurt, I wanted you to hurt, because I blamed you, and I shouldn't have."

"I know, I bugged Ms. James office when she was talking to everyone who was connected with Lilly." I look down at my hands, almost ashamed of the fact that I broke so many people's trust by listening in on those conversations, almost.

Logan laughed, looking up at the ceiling and running his fingers though his hair. "I should have known. That's something that you would do. So, did you learn anything else interesting while listening in?"

"Plenty, though I'm not going to share what anyone else said, that's for them to tell you."

"I already know that Weevil was with Lilly, I saw his tattoo."

"I know, you told me that already."

"So, what else is there to know?" Logan looked at me for this first time since I entered the bathroom, right in the eyes.

"Nothing, there's nothing else that you need to know about Lilly that anyone else said." Which was true, nothing else about Lilly, but lots about other people, about Duncan and Logan himself, even Weevil had divulged secrets that they wouldn't want others to know about, and I wasn't ready to share.

"Okay." Logan went back to looking at his water bottle. "The period is almost over; you might want to go find your boy."

"Yeah, this afternoon is going to be fun." I deadpan, I'm not really looking forward to the talk that Weevil and I need to have, the things that I need to tell him, about Duncan and me, about my mom, I need to open up, and trust him with things that I don't want to think about, or talk about with anyone; but he needs to know. I have spent so much time since Lilly died running away from any kind of long term connection to anyone, and it was time for that to stop, and for that to happen, I had to let someone in. I was slowly letting my old friends back in, and I had never really let Wallace in up until a few days ago, now it was time to let in Weevil. I have learned over the past year and a half that walls are good, that they protect you when things go bad, in the past few weeks I realized that you don't have to build your walls just around yourself, you can build them with people you trust, and they can protect you even from yourself.

The bell rang as I was leaving the bathroom with Logan in tow. Duncan met us at the lockers with my books, since I had left class halfway though and hadn't gone back. I stowed my books in my locker, grabbed my bike helmet, and left for the parking lot. I had no delusions of actually getting any homework done that night, if there was anytime after the talk with Weevil, we needed to go by the Sheriff's department to have a nice talk with Deputy Leo, who was surprisingly getting along well with my biker boyfriend.

I reached Weevil's bike before he did, no one else was in the parking lot yet, and I noticed something that I wasn't totally prepared for, but knew I should have been. The front right tire of Logan's Yellow XTerra where flat. It took me by surprise, not some much that the tires where flat, but that I hadn't thought to say anything before school about it, I had always thought that Logan had been the one to let the air out of my tires, and I didn't think that anyone would be industrious enough to do it to him, I was wrong. I quickly texted Logan about the situation, then opened up the back to his car, pulling out his Jack and spare tire, and got to work changing the tire, while he came out to help me. Weevil made it there first, and took the tire iron out of my hands.

"It's so nice to see a chick who knows her way around a car." He smiled as he knelt down next to me, working the tire iron.

"Yeah, well, I've had a few mysterious flat tires in my time, I got the practice. The LaBarron is my baby, but she's a bit temperamental." I watched the muscles work on his arms as he coxed the tire off of the car, I could feel the tightening in my stomach that I had come to associate with Weevil. He made things in my body react like no one ever had, and I was basking in the feeling, when Logan interrupted my slide show of half naked Weevil that was repeating itself in my mind.

"Well, it looks like your flats have become my flats, Ronnie." Logan threw his backpack into the trunk of the SUV and then dropped down on the other side of Weevil, to help him wrestle the spare tire onto the car.

"See, I always though that you had been letting the air out of my tires. I guess I was wrong."

"I only did that once. And that was after the whole bong incident." He tried to take the tire iron from Weevil, who refused to give it to him.

"Dude, I remember the last time you had a tire iron, I'm not letting you have one now." Weevil had been my big hero that day, scaring Logan and his '09er buddies off, and here we where not even a year later, and we where fixing up Logan's car, the three of us.

"I promise not to bash in any head lights, but I should get the practice, I have a feeling that this is going to happen a lot." Logan took the tire iron that Weevil surrendered, and worked the bolts back onto the car, securing the spare tire. Weevil and I left him to it as Duncan and Wallace walked up.

"You going to be okay, Logan?" I asked, before going to Weevil's bike.

"Yeah, give me a call when you get home tonight, we'll figure out rides for tomorrow."

"Sure thing."

"Take the car over to my Uncle's shop, I'll give him a heads up that its coming." Weevil and Logan pounded fists, and we walked away. I looked back to see the three boys crouching on the pavement finishing up Logan's tire, and I smiled. A year ago I would never have guessed that my life would be this way. I never thought I would be happy again, despite everything that was happening, knowing that Duncan was my brother, having Lilly's killer behind bars, knowing who had raped me at Shelley's party, knowing that it hadn't really been rape, having Weevil at my side, Wallace at my back and two boys who I had been estranged from for more then a year, with me now. I was happy, and it was such a new feeling that it almost confused me.

Weevil pressed the key's to the bike into my hand as we walked up it, I looked at him in confusion for only a moment, before pulling my helmet on and swinging my leg over the bike, starting the engine and backing it out of the space. Weevil swung himself onto the bike behind me, and I could hear the cat-calls from Logan, Duncan and Wallace as I took the bike out of the parking lot and onto the main road. I didn't go far, only as far as the beach, keeping the bike on residential roads, I wasn't really ready to go much faster then thirty miles an hour, but it was exhilarating to be the one in control, to feel Weevil's body pressed to the back of mine, his arms strong around my waist. Happy wasn't so bad, now all I had to do was divulge all of my deep dark secretes to this man, and help him find his best friend, and who had taken his best friend, then I had to make sure that Aaron Echolls rotted in prison, and there would be more, but some how, it didn't seem all that bad.


	18. Chapter 18

Part 18

We left the bike in the parking lot, or helmets sitting on the seat and the bike tipped at an angle on it's kick stand, looking for all the world like it had its head tilted, begging us to come back to it, to ride away and forget about the heavy talk that we had ahead of us. My body was wound tight from the short ride; the memory of Weevil's body pressed up against mine was like a physical burning along my skin. I couldn't think of what I needed to say to him, I couldn't remember why we where here on the beach, I just had to touch him, to ground myself, make myself real after the day that I had just gone through. I pushed Weevil to the sand near the water, before the sand became wet, but close enough that I could feel the water lapping at the shore. He looked stunned at the gesture, but let his body fall to the sand, where he got comfortable, leaning back on his hands, and tilting his head to the side, waiting for me to start talking. I didn't. Instead I dropped myself onto his lap, straddling his hips, pushing myself as close to him as I could, feeling the way our bodies fit together.

"V, you can't sit here if you want me to listen to anything you have to say, I'm not that good." I run my hands over his arms, feeling his muscles bunch under my hands as my touch affects him, he tries to lift me out of his lap, but I can tell his heart isn't in it, if it where I would be sitting on the sand. I stay firmly in his lap, continuing my exploration. When I don't say anything, he lies back in the sand, and watches me with darkened eyes as I run my hands up under his wife-beater, his stomach muscles jumping at my light touch. "Baby, we're not going to get any talking done if you keep doing that, and the beach is really not the place."

"I need to touch you, before I say anything, I need this." I look him in the eye, and when he doesn't say anything, I lay against him, pressing my body into his, running my fingers against his scalp and then behind his neck, before lowering my lips to his. The kiss starts out slow, reacquainting myself with the feel of his full lips against mine, so different from any of the other boys I've kissed. I run my tongue along the seam of his lips, and then inside when he opens to me. As I run my tongue along his, his hands find their way down my back, resting on my hips and bringing me closer to his, grinding my body against his. I wait for it to scare me, for my fight or flight instinct to kick in, telling me that we're going to far, or too fast, but it doesn't. My body starts to become warm, the butterflies in my stomach turn to fire and I moan into his mouth.

He pulls away first, pushing my body back into a sitting position on his lap, and he follows me, leaning back against his arms. "Chica, we either gotta talk now, or we need to go some place else." He runs his hands up and down my arms, almost like he's making sure I'm still there.

I swing my leg off of his lap, like I swing my leg off of his bike, and I sit in the sand facing the water, I don't want to look at him for what I have to say. "Where do you want me to start?"

Weevil brings his knees to his chest, resting his arms on them, and looks out at the water. I watch him from the corner of my eye, and wait. "Why did you leave Echolls' house that night?"

"Okay, that's an easy one, I can answer that. I was in his pool house with him; we had just escaped the impromptu party that his father had thrown him. I told him that I didn't blame him for what happened at Shelley's Party, that anything that had happened was forgiven, he asked me if I wanted a drink, and then proceeded to break the key off in the door to the liquor cabinet, and left to go get some from the house. I had just finished telling him that I trusted him that I wanted to trust him; I could be his girlfriend, not just in privet but in public too. I was watching the ceiling fan, and noticed something, a reflection from a lens in the fan. I followed the wiring of the fan and found a hidden video system; the bed that I had been laying on was pictured, from two different angles. I had just said I trusted Logan, and in a second it was all erased. I called you, I knew you would come get me, I trusted you where I couldn't trust Logan."

"But that's not why you broke up with him." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, Weevil knew that Logan and I had talked after that.

"No, I broke up with Logan because I couldn't get the image of Duncan out of my head." I turned to him when I said this, "Logan was too close to Duncan, he's like a brother to me, I felt sick when I thought about kissing him, and I knew that no matter what I said, I would never trust him enough to let him that close again. In the end, I really just don't have those feelings for Logan, I tried to, I think because we both needed to feel close to Lilly again, but there just not there."

"So, what happened at Shelley's that you had to forgive Logan for?" I wished with every fiber of my being that Weevil hadn't asked that question, not right then, I had a nice new relationship with this guy, one that while wonderful and comforting was still not stable yet, and I was going to tell him about having sex with another guy, a guy who happened to be my brother, not that I had known that at the time, and sex that I didn't remember, sex that I had thought was rape not a week ago.

"I was slipped GHP at Shelley's party." I left the statement out there for a moment, turning away from Weevil again, to stare at the horizon. "I don't remember much about what had happened that night, and up until about a week ago, I didn't know anything that had happened, other then the fact that I woke up in a guest bedroom at Shelley's house the next day, missing my underwear." A tear slipped down my face, the heat of it was the only thing that made me aware of it. I couldn't bring myself to look at Weevil, but I felt him scoot closer to me and wrap his arm around my shoulder. I want to tell him not to touch me, that he may be disgusted with me in a moment, that I can't bear for him to touch me yet, that if he walks away, its going to hurt all the more because of the comfort that he's giving to me right now, but I don't, because in the end, the only reason that I can go on is because of his arm around me, the weight of his body along the side of mine, "I spent several days last week tracking down what had happened at the party. Logan didn't slip me the GHP, it wasn't even his that I took, but he did slip some to Duncan." Again I let the statement hang, hoping that I wont have to go any farther, that Weevil will know what comes next just by what I left out. I feel his arm tense against my shoulder, and I prepare myself for the weight to leave, for angry words to come out of his mouth, I'm completely ready for rejection. What I'm not ready for is what happens next.

Weevil pulls my back into his lap, my legs both on the sand to one side; he hugs me to his body and whispers softly in Spanish into my ear. I don't know what he says, but it's amazingly comforting. He kisses me softly on the top of the head, and rocks me against him. "I'm so sorry, Veronica." His words are quiet and full of weight, I can hear the tears at the back of his throat, and I let myself fall apart.


	19. Chapter 19

Part 19

I don't know how long we sat there, but when my phone rang the sky was starting to turn pink, and the air had cooled. Weevil pulled the phone out of my bag, as it was out of my reach, and checked the caller ID.

"It's the Sheriff's Department, V." I held out my hand for the phone, and gave him a reassuring smile as I wiped the remaining tears from my face with the back of my other hand.

"Mars." It was Leo, and I can't tell you how happy I was that I didn't have to talk to Lamb about something, not that I could think of a good reason that he would call my cell phone, but then, when does Lamb need a good reason to do anything.

"We're found your boy." Leo let the sentence hang there, and I could have killed him.

"And?" I could hear the tears leave my voice, replaced by an uncompromising annoyance.

"He's at San Diego General." I waited for him to go on, he was being entirely too stingy with his information, and I was not in the mood to continue to prompt him. I could hear his sigh from the other end of the phone before he continued. "He's been registered as a John Doe, in intensive care. He's in a coma, Veronica."

"Text me over the information, we're heading there now."

"We, you mean you and Weevil?" I wish I couldn't hear the disappointment in his voice. He may have started to get along with Weevil, but that didn't mean he wasn't upset about the fact that I was dating him, that I had broken up with Leo to date Logan, and instead of going back to Leo, who, let's face it, was a really sweet boyfriend; I started dating the biker. I wished his disappointment didn't make me feel bad.

"Yeah, me and Weevil." I tried to say it as level as possible, not to add any of the guilt that I felt for rubbing it in Leo's face.

"I'll get you that info." He hung up without saying good-bye, and I knew I had really hurt him, with everything that I had done this year to him he was hurt by my rejection the most.

I turned to Weevil, after placing the phone in the pocket of my jacket. "He's at San Diego General, he's in a coma, but so far, he's alive. We'll have to talk to his doctors though. You might want to call his mother on the ride over."

Weevil smoothed down my hair, and cupped the back of my head. "Do you know how much I appreciate you?"

"Yeah, I think I have an idea." Tears slipped down my face, and they stung, I must look terrible, my cheeks red and raw from the salty tears that had been running down them for what seemed like forever.

"I'll call her before we get on the road, I don't want you driving after its dark." Weevil used the hand that he had on the back of my head to pull me into him, his lips where soft and the kiss was just a press of lips, but it reassured me in a way I wasn't even aware I needed. "I'm glad you told me everything. Not about Felix, but about you and Kane and you and Echolls. We have more to talk about later."

"Yeah." I laugh humorously, "We still haven't talked about my mom." I climb out of his lap, and dust the sand off of my jeans, then put out my hand to help him up. He doesn't so much need the help, but I needed him to touch me, now that he had reassured me, I found I needed it again. He took my hand and stood up, then turned away from me, and I could feel a sting in my chest.

"Help me dust off, I would help you, but you didn't give me the chance." The leer came back to his face, and I could feel the butterflies in my stomach again. I smiled at his back, and then ran my hands across his butt and the back of his legs, then moved higher to the sand on his back from lying down earlier. When I was finished he turned back around. "I want that scared look out of your eyes, Veronica. I'm not going to walk away now, just cuz I know you slept with Duncan. If you had known that Duncan was your brother, and you hadn't been under the influence of drugs, we would have had to talk, but as I see it, it was a situation out of your control. Now stop looking at me like I'm going to run at any second." He flung his arm around my shoulders and drew me to him. "Let's go see Felix."

It took longer then we thought it would to talk to Felix's mom. She was less then thrilled with the fact that Weevil credited me with finding her son, not to mention the fact that I was the one to put in a missing persons report. I could hear her from Weevil's phone, chewing him out for getting the 'White Girl' involved, she didn't refer to me as anything else, like I was below having an identity, I was simply a gender and a skin color. Hearing her yell at Weevil because of me made me sick to my stomach.

Weevil closed the cell phone and turned to me. "I'm sorry you had to hear that." He held out his hand to me, and I put my hand in his, and intertwined our fingers.

"I just wish she wouldn't hate me." I smiled weakly at him and tilted my head to the side, knowing that he would be affected.

"It's not you she hates; it's what you represent to her. Now come here," he pulled me into his arms, wrapping his free arm around my shoulders, but continuing to hold my hand. He placed a kiss on my forehead. "Grandma will love you." In the end, it didn't really matter that Felix's mother didn't like me, but it did that Weevils grandmother would, and if her feelings hadn't changed, she already liked me pretty well.

"Good, I like your Grandma." I pull away from his embrace and tug on his hand, pulling him towards his bike. "Come on, I want to feel the wind rushing by on our way to San Diego."

"You only like me for my bike." He smiles and swats me gently on the butt.

"Watch it mister, you have to wait until the end of the first date for butt smacking rights."

"Really, what do I get after the second date?"

"Snickerdoodles."


	20. Chapter 20

Part 20

I sat in the waiting room of San Diego General, waiting for Weevil to finish talking to Felix's doctors. We had spent a good half an hour convincing them to talk to us at all, and in the end, they only agreed to talk to Weevil. We had seen him briefly, though the window of his room, because he was in ICU, he could only be visited by family and only one person at a time, they agreed to talk to Weevil, but they wouldn't let him into Felix's room.

He looked terribly, covered in angry yellow and green bruises and cuts, many of which where sown up with stitches, making him look like a Hispanic Frankenstein's Monster. His left arm and leg where both in casts, the leg lifted off the bed in a sling. We couldn't see the right side of him, but from the looks the nurses gave us, his right side wasn't much better off.

Felix's mother and sister came in while Weevil was still talking to his doctor, his sister in hysterics. I could only watch from my seat across the room. Weevil pointed toward me at a few points during the conversation, and in the end, Felix's sister came to sit with me while Weevil showed Mrs. Toombs to her son's room.

"You found Felix?" His sister addressed me with out looking in my direction, tears streaming down her face.

"I filed the missing person's report; I can't really say I found him." I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but I was afraid to try.

"Weevil says you're a good person." She looked up at me then, her face red and wide eyed.

"I take that as a high complement from him."

"I'm Anna."

"Veronica."

"Your Weevil's girlfriend?" She seemed hesitant to use the word, as if she wasn't sure it was a badge of honor for me to ware, but a title I wouldn't want to have.

"I am." I give her a hesitant smile. "How old are you Anna, I haven't seen you around school?" She didn't look that much younger then us, though her long black hair was pulled into two low pig-tails, and her face was free of make-up. She wore simple blue jeans and a white t-shirt.

"I'm fourteen; I'll start at your school next year. Felix says I have to do good in school, that one of our family needs to have college prospects." She starts crying again when she mentions Felix's name, and flings herself into my arms. I rub her back and whisper reassuring words, words that my father said to me many times, words he said when mom left and when he lost his job. I was so relieved that she let me comfort her that I didn't even see Weevil come back in.

"Mrs. Toombs is in with him. She won't say it, but I know she's thankful that you found him." Weevil rubbed his hand up and down my back, giving me comfort that I in turn gave to Anna. "Your brother's going to be just fine, Anna."

"Thanks Weevil, you're a good friend to him. And Veronica?" She turned her big brown eyes back to me, and I nodded. "Thank you."

I smiled, and couldn't for the life of me come up with something meaningful to say to the girl; I could say, your welcome, but that seemed completely inadequate. Weevil came to me with a job, to find Felix, and I had, in the end, found so much more; I found a place to belong, in a few short days I had not only found my family, my real family, but a circle of friends that I could count on, and a boyfriend who was more then worth the trouble of finding his friend. And I got to ride on a very pretty motorcycle, I was in heaven, and the only thing that would set me over the top was if Felix would wake up, and possibly if his mother would stop scowling at me, which when I looked up, was exactly what she was doing.

"Anna, come see your brother. Leave the White Girl alone." Mrs. Toombs stalked off back though the ICU doors. Anna looked apologetically at me, and pulled out of my arms to follow her mother.

"I'll see you guys around." She waved and disappeared behind the doors.

"Well, Chica. You did what I asked."

"I did."

"Now, I should probably get you home." Weevil stood and offered me his hand, which I took. I picked up my helmet that was sitting beside me, and we walked back out into the parking lot to his bike.

"What are we going to do about Felix's bike; we can't just leave it in that parking lot forever." I leaned back on the lamp post that Weevil had parked under, folding my arms across my chest, trying to get a bit warmer; now that the sun had set it was very chilly outside, and I hadn't dressed that morning with the intention of being out past sunset, let along more then half an hour from home, and only a motorcycle to get me there.

"We'll go get it tomorrow after school, get one of your boys to drive us out there, and then we can take it back. Maybe have that date on the way home." He smiled at me, his face in shadows, giving him an almost sinister look, which only made me want him more.

"You just want ass smacking privileges."

"No, I want to be that much closer to those snickerdoodles, getting to touch your butt is just a side perk." He leaned full into my body against the pole, and wrapped his hands around it above my head.

"So, I never asked, what do I get after the first date?"

"You get to ride my hog." He leaned in further, his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes because he was so close, I couldn't really see him. I breathed in his scent, which was a welcome change from the antiseptic hospital we had just left. I felt sure and grounded, nothing like I had ever felt with anyone else, while Weevil made my head spin in that wonderful way that you feel when you first start to fall for someone, he also made me feel like I was firmly planted on the ground, like I had been swept off my feet, but at the same time safer then I ever could be; I was falling for him hard, but my landing wouldn't hurt.

"I've already ridden your hog, you let me drive." I smiled at him, my eyes still closed. I could feel him return my smile as he placed his lips against mine.

"Different hog, chica."

"Pervert."

"You like me that way." He placed his lips against mine again, and I can feel his tongue slide against the seam of my lips, I open them to him, and I am lost, without any intention of being found.


	21. Chapter 21

AN: Sorry this has taken so long, my new job is sucking all my time up, as well as my energy... I'm sorry this is so short, I'll have something else out before the end of the weekend!

Part 21

School went by entirely too slowly for me, all I could think about was my date with Weevil that evening. Despite the fact that I had been with him all weekend, the though of going on a date with him made every thing seem more real. Lunch came around without any huge problems, the '09ers continued to torment Logan, but he seemed to be developing his thick skin pretty well, with all of us standing by his side during the day he held his head high.

"You know, I don't really miss being with them, I mean, I miss how easy it was, how I fit in and had a very defined place, but I don't miss the people." Logan was looking intently at his carrot stick, while we sat on the retaining wall outside the school. Logan, Duncan, Wallace and I where waiting for Weevil to get out of shop class, which always seemed to run a bit later then the rest of our classes, probably for the clean-up factor.

"That's kinda how I felt when I got kicked out, the first few weeks where hard, but I think it was because I had no where to go." I took the poor abused and humiliated carrot from Logan, and popped it in my mouth.

"Hey! I was going to eat that."

"You've been staring at it for the past ten minutes; you where just going to look at it until you lost interest, and then throw it aside like and '09er trophy wife." I folded my arms across my chest and resisted the urge to stick out my carrot covered tongue at him.

"Well, I would at least have bought it a nice house first and possibly given it kids and pretty jewels before casting it aside." Logan copied my stance and looked to Duncan to back him up.

"As it should be." Duncan held up his end of being the best friend by backing Logan up, but refrained for our childish expressions.

"And as I have always thought, the rich are really just different." Wallace had been quiet since we got out to the wall, seemingly uncomfortable with the three of us, though he had been just fine the day before when it had been just him, Duncan and Logan, it seemed to be the addition of me that made him uneasy; I filed that away in the back of my mind to think about and bring up to him later.

A pair of arms wrapped themselves around me from behind, the golden hands covering my folded arms, and the scent of him over came me. I tilted my head up and over my shoulder, and was rewarded with a light kiss on my lips.

"Ready for lunch, Chica?" He took my top hand in his, pulling my arms from over my chest and turning my body to step off the wall onto the upper level of the patio.

"As I'll ever be, I just hope that you don't have to defend my position again, Thumper glairs at me."

"Oh, does the big bad biker scare you little girl?" Weevil used a cutesy baby voice that made me want to hurl a bit, but I went along with it.

"Very much, will you protect me? Save me from the evil man?"

"Anytime, Chica." He wrapped his arm around my waist and led me off with out another word.


	22. Chapter 22

AN: Well... here is the second part of my all too short chapter from yesterday... this ones pretty short too... but I promise that starting with the next chapter they will be more normal lengthed! Read and Review guys!

Part 22

My subtle hints about where each of the members of the PCH had been the Thursday before didn't go unnoticed. Thumper called me almost immediately on my line of questioning, and I thought he was probably the dumbest of the group. With my questioning shot down and the fact that I wasn't as welcome in their neighborhood as I had once thought, I was going to have to use my new connections with both Weevil and Felix's sister to get the information that I needed, granted, I could just wait until Felix woke up, but that could take a long time, given the extent of his injuries, and I didn't want anything else to happen in the meantime. I ran though the idea with Weevil, who was shocked that I would ask him to do something as important as question people, parents and siblings to be more specific.

"I have faith in you, and I'll have a hidden mike on you so that I can listen in." I smoothed out the wrinkles on his shirt while we talked at my locker.

"Yeah, lots of faith, what are you doing to do if you don't like my way of questioning?" He rested his hands over mine, stopping my hands continual motion down his chest.

"I'm going to call your cell phone and explain how advantages its not to intimidate the people you're questioning."

"Chica, if I remember correctly, you used Dick's surf board to intimidate him into answering your questions."

"Yeah, but I knew that was the only way to get him to talk to me, plus he lied anyway." Weevil pulled me to him, resting his hands at the small of my back.

"I promise not to be too mean, but people will wonder if I'm suddenly Mr. Manors."

Classes crawled by the rest of the day, Logan had stopped being smart to the teachers, which had at one time sparked interesting discussions in class, even if he had only meant what he said as a sarcastic remark. I never really though about how empty a class would be without his remarks, with out his personality to make it move a bit faster. Suddenly, class was just class, teachers lecturing at us and the brown nosing students answering the questions that the teacher threw out at us. I spent the last three periods watching the clock, and not just in a casual looking up at the clock every once in a while way, but following the second hand around the entire clock face for long minutes at a time.

It took all of my self control not to sprint out of my last period class as soon as the bell rang. I was going to meet Weevil, Duncan and Logan in the parking lot to be taken out to San Diego and Felix's bike. Weevil had gotten the keys from Mrs. Toombs the day before. Then Weevil and I where going to go on our first date. The only guy I had really consistently gone on dates with was Leo; I had gone on one with Troy, and a few scattered ones with Duncan. Logan and I had never had our try out date. I was excited and a little nervous to go on this date with Weevil.


	23. Chapter 23

AN: Sorry this is taking me so long to update, its not for lack of trying... I have just moved to a new city, I started a new job and I'm currently living in my parents house while I try to find a reasonably priced place to live... this is unfortunaly taking up almost all of my time, and as much as I would love to live in the VM universe, I have to live in the real world for the time being... as soon as things settle down, it'll get better...

Part 23

The trip to San Diego was quiet, each one of us in our own worlds, dealing with our own issues. Even after my talk with Weevil about Duncan and me, there where still things nagging at the back of my mind. Weevil had almost dismissed the fact that I had slept with Duncan completely, like it was an easily forgivable sin, but I couldn't, and more to the fact I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. I was scared that when it came time for me to have sex again, I would somehow be incapable. I watched Weevil as he looked out the window, deep in his own thoughts, the keys to Felix's bike gripped tight in his hand. I wanted to ask what he was thinking about, but at the same time, I wanted to give him the space to think on his own, whether he was thinking about Felix or anything else, he deserved the privacy that he was affording me. The look on his face made me think about Felix, who was laying in a hospital bed, inside of him the answer to what had happened, and I could keep digging, and working to find the answers to who had done this to him or I could wait until he woke up, assuming that he did. I wanted to ask Weevil what he wanted to do, if he wanted me to keep pushing, if he wanted me to spend my time working my way into the trust of his friends, or if he just wanted to have me as his girlfriend, and avoid the complications that seemed to have cropped up since we started dating.

Weevil turned away from the window, as if my thoughts drew him to me, he placed his hand on my thigh and rubbed back and forth soothingly, which was the only thing that made me realize how worried I must have looked. I felt like I was driving to a trial, as if I would be put up on a stand and judged, not like I was on my way to go out to dinner with the man I was rapidly developing feelings for; I couldn't help but think that I should be more excited.

"What's wrong, Chica?" Weevil moved his hand to cover mine on my knee.

"Just thinking, I'll be fine." I tried to smile reassuringly, but I could feel that it never reached my eyes. He turned my hand over in his and raised it to his lips, placing a kiss on my open palm.

"Don't think so hard tonight, this is supposed to be fun. If you're a good girl, I'll even let you drive." That made me smile, and I wanted to kiss him right then, he always seemed to know what to say to make me feel better, and this wasn't just a lately thing, as I looked back, even when he was just the biker gang leader, and I was helping his grandmother with the credit card fraud case, he knew what to say that would make me feel just enough better that I could keep going. I refrained from kissing him right then.

"I'm always a good girl, and it's not skin off your nose if I drive someone else's bike."

"You're no angel, V, and I like it that way." We lapsed back into silence for the rest of the drive, only talking to let Logan know where to go. As of late I felt more comfortable in Logan's presence, even more comfortable then when it had been the four of us before Lilly died, before Logan was mad at me, before everything, certainly before we had dated. Logan and I had our fun together, but we where never really comfortable alone in each others presence, or fire burned hot, and scorched both of us, having our friendship back seemed to have healed those burns. Weevil hand healed my wounds, at least the ones that had to do with past relationships. I leaned my head on his shoulder, and tried to relax, tried to banish the thoughts that where plaguing me, making me relive the moments that have changed my life. I could see Lilly lying on the concrete of her backyard, the morning I had woken up missing my underwear, and Don Lambs face when he refused to help me, I could see the moment my father told me I was Jake Kane's biological daughter, and finally, Aaron Echolls being handcuffed and lead away, charged with the murder of Lilly Kane.

The SUV pulled into the parking lot that held Felix's bike, it was pretty obvious that we where there, since the only thing in the lot was the bike and some fallen tree branches, that must have been hauled there, because there where certainly not any trees around that the branches could have fallen from. As I got out of the car, I was half expecting something sarcastic to come out of Logan's mouth, but he just smiled at me softly and put the car in gear, turning it around, ready to leave as soon as we got the bike started.

I pulled my helmet over my head, and felt something small and cold being pressed into my hand, looking down; it was the key chain that had Felix's bike key on it.

"I told you I would let you drive." Weevil zipped up his jacket, and pulled on his helmet, gesturing toward the bike. I smiled at him and swung my leg over the bike, seating myself comfortably on the red bike, I waited until Weevil was secure behind me before I started the bike.

"Where am I taking us?" I knew we where going to dinner, but Weevil still hadn't told me where.

"Head back to Neptune; we need to stop off at my house first." I took the bike out into the road and headed back to Neptune, a loudly yellow XTerra behind us the entire way.


	24. Chapter 24

AN: I have been posting this story on this site as well as the WeeVer site Love You Long Time... this evening I got a treat, one of the other members of the WeeVer site desided to reread this story, and review as she went along. Well, she reviewed about 15 of the chapters, which prompted me to go back and read the chapters that she had reviewed so that I could remember the parts that she mentioned in the review. When she got to the final chapter, I wrote her a letter, telling her that I wouldn't have a chance to write the next part until after this coming holiday weekend, but I had really enjoyed and appreciated the reviews. Then I went to go to sleep, I have a really long day at work tomorrow, and need all the sleep I can get... But my WeeVer muse just kept poking at me, I kept writing parts of this chapter in my head, I knew how I was going to start it, what I wanted to do with it... and so here it is... and this part is inspired by and dedicated to blair23 from Love You Long Time... hope you all enjoy!

Part 24

It felt completely natural to have Weevil sitting behind me on the bike, his arms wrapped around my waist making my body tight and warm. Felix's bike drove differently then Weevil's, but I guess motorcycles are like cars that way; no car drives the same as the one you learned on. Weevil's bike felt like it had a will of its own when you drove it, almost like a head strong pony, it knew that I didn't really know what I was doing, so it took matters into its own hands; Felix's was like a reliable trail horse, letting you guide it as you will, following the horse in front of it blindly. I had plenty of time on the way back to Neptune to think about this, since it was nearly impossible to carry on a conversation with Weevil for more then a few seconds while stopped at a red light. I felt even more free being in control of the motorcycle then I did riding on the back of Weevil's, though I was a bit worried about taking one out for a spin on my own, something I was sure I wasn't ready for, but the wind rushing by me made my body hum, in addition to the humming it was doing from the weight of Weevil plastered to the back of it.

We got to Weevil's house in just under forty five minutes, which was pretty respectable since Weevil had made me take surface roads the entire way back to Neptune, convinced that I wasn't ready for the highway, which I was grateful for. The thought of taking the bike on the highway brought up old memories of being fifteen and learning how to drive with my dad, my learners permit still warm in my wallet, and dad telling me that sometime soon I would have to tackle highway driving; I never thought that I would feel that way again, that bit of exhilaration mixed with a mind numbing terror, but here it was, rearing its ugly head again.

I pulled the bike up in front of the house, and turned it off, pushing the kick stand down with my foot, all in one action. Weevil squeezed my hips in reassurance before he got off the bike. I wasn't really sure why I felt nervous about going into Weevil's house, I had been there before, I really liked his grandmother, and I was reasonably sure that she liked me as well, having gotten her grandson, the one I happened to now be dating, out of juvie; but I still felt nervous. I pulled my helmet off, and heard a deep intake of breath come from the porch of the Navarro house. I shook my hair out before I looked up at the porch, a woman that I had never met was sitting on the front step, she had the same golden skin and the same eyes that Weevil had, but must have been maybe five years older then us.

"Josefina, what are you doing back in the neighborhood?" Weevil grinned at the woman, and she returned it, further convincing me that they had to be related, as their smiles where identical.  
"What, a girl can't come home to surprise her little brother?" She stood and walked down the stairs and captured Weevil in a tight hug. "And who may I ask is this pretty little white girl who was driving Felix's bike. And Where is your bike, you didn't get it taken away, now did you little brother?"

"Jose, this is Veronica, my girlfriend." I put out my hand for the woman to shake, but she stepped into my personal space first and wrapped her arms around me, duplicating the hug she had just given to Weevil.

"God, I hope she's your girlfriend, I would be very upset if you let just anyone drive you around on someone else's bike." She let go of me and stepped back, looking me from my feet up, the way a man does when checking out a woman. "She's cute, I approve, you can keep her."

"Oh, good." Weevil put his hand over his heart in mock relief. "I was so worried that I would have to trade her in, and I'd just gotten all the settings right."

"It's good to meet you, Veronica." Jose turned to me, her back to her brother. "I was starting to get worried that Eli here wouldn't find a nice girl to make him commit."

"I don't really think I made him do anything." I placed my hand in Weevil's out stretched one. "He's a great guy, he wanted to commit all on his own. I think I was the one that needed a bit of convincing."

"Only because you felt guilty for starting to date me like ten seconds after breaking up with Echolls." Weevil squeezed my hand and pulled me to him, tucking me into his arms, my helmet still dangling from my fingers.

"Let's take this inside. I want to hear all about you Veronica, and how you and my brother got together." Weevil chocked back a laugh.

"Oh, well that's a really long and complicated story. Plus I promised V a date tonight, its our first one."

"You mean this is all new, you really taught her how to ride a motorcycle before you took her on a date; you must really like her." I could feel myself blush. "Next you're going to tell me that you haven't even slept with her yet. How long have you two been dating?"  
"Well, I went over to your house on Friday," Weevil looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded. "And we kissed for the first time then." I nodded again. "Then I went home, and I guess we started dating that next day, even though we talked about not dating since you had just gotten out of a relationship, but that didn't last."

"So, you two have been dating for four days, not even a week. How did he get you on a bike so fast?"

"I love the feeling of riding behind him, I just thought it would be even better to have him holding me while I was in control, and I was right." I looked up at Weevil as I said that, his arms tightened around me and I felt like I was home.

"Don't let go of this one, little brother, I think she's perfect." Jose's words made tears come to my eyes, I was most definitely home.


	25. Chapter 25

Part 25

Any thought of going out to dinner where thrown out the window as soon as Jose announced to the family that Weevil had brought a girl, a respectable girl, home. I was quickly whisked away into the kitchen with Jose, Weevil's grandmother, Letty and several other women in the Navarro family, all of whom spoke in a rapid mix of English and Spanish, most of which I understood. I instantly felt welcome, which was a wonderful change after meeting Mrs. Toombs.

Letty, who insisted that I call her abuela, and greeted me with a warm grandmotherly hug, then put me to work grating cheese, which she deemed a job I could do without messing up too badly.

"You have not received any of my cooking lessons yet, so you don't get to do any cooking." She smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "Now, don't grate your fingers, I don't want any blood in my cheese."

"I promise." I concentrated on the task I had to do, and listened to the lively conversation that was going on around me, and I was sure that in a few months I would even be able to understand all of it.

When I didn't come back from the kitchen, after being dragged off by his sister, Weevil came to look for me. He watched me from the doorway, with a small half smile on his face, and a look of affection that I hadn't ever seen him use when other people where around. "You look real cute in that apron. I see my family's taken you in."

"Yep, I got cheese grating duty, since I haven't been cleared to go near the stove yet, one day I might even be able to stir, your little cousin gets to stir, she's nine." I pouted in the cutest way I could, and Weevil pushed off from the doorframe to come wrap his arms around my waist while I grated the huge block of cheese I had been given and told to grate all of.

"Think of it this way, she's been a part of the family for nine years, you've been a part of the family for nine minutes. Give it time, they'll let you stir." He kissed me affectionately on the top of my head and held on for a while longer while I continued to tackle the task of trying to wrestle the block of cheese the size of my head to the cheese grater. "Want a hint?"

"There's a trick to this?"

"There's always a trick." He walked over to one of the counters and pulled a knife off the wall where it had been stuck with magnets, along with many of its friends.

"Is it a good idea for you to have access to that many knives?"

"You're funny chica." He handed me the knife and pointed to the block of cheese. "Try cutting it into smaller pieces. It'll be easer to handle, though it won't be as amusing to watch you struggle with it."

I looked sheepishly at the knife and then the cheese, I'm a bad-ass detective, but I couldn't think my way through grating cheese, that was embarrassing. "Thanks."

Dinner with Weevil's family was nothing like having dinner with my dad, first off, the entire family was there, and Weevil seemed to have an endless supply of brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews, it was crazy. We all moved the dinner into the back yard, sitting at several large picnic tables and setting out the food in the dinning room buffet style. 

After the first ten people asked me who I was, and Weevil introduced me, we stopped trying. I was the token white girl at the dinner, and it was pretty obvious who I was with, since as soon as I left the kitchen, and my cheese, Weevil didn't leave my side. He looked so proud every time someone patted him on the back or told him how pretty I was, I was almost not offended by the fact that he was parading me around like a possession, and for this once, I would let him do it, he could show me off to his family and be proud of the fact that he had a girlfriend, it was his right, and he had earned it.

It wasn't until halfway through dinner that Jose finally caught up with me again to corner me about how Weevil and I met.

"So, you and my brother, you haven't been dating long, but you've known each other for a while."

I nodded my head, trying to figure out how much to tell his sister, Weevil and I hadn't really talked before the first day of school this year, we knew of each other, but we didn't ever really run in the same circles. "We've been going to school together forever, plus, I've always been aware of him, my dad was the sheriff."

"Sheriff Mars is your dad?" She looked a little shocked, and Weevil grinned, and rubbed my back before going back to the conversation he was having with his Uncle Angel on the other side of us. "And your dad is okay with you and my brother?"

"He's okay with it, Weevil got a pretty stern talking to, but I think my dad likes him better then some of the other guys that I've dated, plus if I'm with Weevil then at least my dad knows where he is." I smiled when I said this, just in case Jose didn't know I was kidding, but she threw her head back and laughed.

"It's good to know that someone's keeping tabs on him, this boy could go far, he's a smart one, he just needs the proper motivation, and to have some pushing."

"Oh, I know. That's one of the reasons we've kept running into each other over this past year, his intelligence comes in handy on occasion in my line of work, then again, so does his intimidation factor, and the use of his bike."

"Okay, so you've know each other for years. But, you where friends with Lilly Kane, right?"

"Best friends, since we where like nine, she decided one day that I was going to be her best friend, and you don't argue with Lilly, and it was like that to the day she died."

"So, how did you and Eli start running in the same circles?"

"Well, dad got ousted as sheriff, summer happened, I met a nice boy who was taped to a flag pole, pissed off the leader of the local biker gang, needed to help a local lawyer, and get the leader of the bike gang off my back, did a bit of a switch with some evidence tapes, got two of the PCHers off on some petty theft charges, got Logan Echolls brought up on drug paraphernalia possession charges, Logan decided to redecorate my car with a tire iron, got bailed out by the PCH, and the rest is history, its been a mutual relationship of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours; somewhere in there feelings developed. When Weevil came over after Aaron Echolls was arrested for Lilly's murder asking me to help with Felix's disappearance, it all just fell into place."

Jose turned to her brother, "You tied her friend to a flag pole?"

"He wasn't her friend yet." 

"Okay, you tied anyone up to a flag pole, come on little brother, really?"

"But look at the pretty, pretty girlfriend it got me, and it only took what eight months? And don't forget, V, you got abuela out of jail too, and me, and you found Felix and you tutored me in math, and you figured out the whole money thing with the poker game, you've been a big part of my life this year." He reached around and put his arm around my waist, lifting me up into his lap. "This would have been a much harder year without you."

"Thanks, it would have been a harder year without you too, don't forget all your gallant rescues that you have made on your bike. And I don't think that the LaBaron would have made it through this year with out its visits to Uncle Angel's, how's my car doing anyway?" I look at Angel, who is still sitting with Weevil.

"It's really time for you to start looking for a new mode of transportation, Chica, I can keep the Baron running, but its going to end up costing you more then its worth." He looked sorry to have to tell me this, and I was sad to hear it, the LaBaron had been a real friend over the past year. "I've got it working for now, no charge, Weevil said you did the work to find Felix for free, I can throw you this one, but the next time, you may just want to sell it to me for parts, I'll see what I can do about finding something for you to replace it with."

I was sure that that was the most that Angel had ever said to me, and I was touched that he had felt that my work in locating Felix was worth the cost of fixing my car. "I'll do that. And I'll do what I can to keep throwing you business."

"Yeah, I'm getting some new high end clientele, '09er's and the like, I'm guessing that's your doing?"

"Logan and Duncan, yeah, that's from me. You'll probably see a lot of Logan, he's going through what I went through this past year, and that tends to weigh heavy on the car, they always go for the car."

"Speaking of summer business, my counter girl is gone for the summer, I know you work for your dad doing PI stuff, but if you want some extra summer cash, its not much, but Weevil says you know your way around a car at least a little, and what you don't know one of use can teach you, I need someone who can run an office, answer phones and answer simple car and bike questions, hours flexible, it would keep Weevil in the shop more and less on the street if he had some eye candy to look at, and as a bonus, you actually know how to do most of the stuff I need done."

"That sounds great, but only if its okay with Weevil, I don't want to cramp his style too much this summer."

"I can teach you how to work on bikes this summer; you can go back to school with your very own motorcycle, that'll keep the kids guessing."

"Okay, sounds like I'm in. Classes end next week, I can start that Saturday." I was all excited, the prospect of a summer job outside of the PI field was neat, and I knew dad wanted me to branch out, not that this was what he had in mind, but having a marketable skill is always useful, even if it is being able to fix cars, hey, it'll save me money for the rest of my life.

"Come in this weekend, Weevil can show you around, and he can pull out a junk bike for you two to start working on. By the time school starts you'll even have a new paint job on it."


	26. Chapter 26

Part 26

Part 26

Wednesday dawned entirely too early for me, Weevil didn't drop me off at the apartment until well after eleven o'clock, and at that point I still needed to tackle my homework, which kept me up too late to bother looking at the clock, for fear that it would just depress me. I barely got my coffee into the travel mug when I heard the cheerfully painful sound of a car horn, which I knew had to be my ride to school. I dragged my messenger bag along behind me out the door and locked it, then lugged myself over to the car and threw my bag and my body into the front seat of Duncan's SUV.

"Long night Ronnie?" Logan's voice was entirely too cheerful for first thing in the morning, and I debated throwing my coffee him, but decided against it, entirely because it would deprive me of the caffeine.

"Did Weevil keep you up? Where you two doing things that the Sheriff wouldn't approve of?" 

"You mean like Parcheesi, dad really hates that game, he says that anything that has such a ridicules name and too many rules can't possibly be fun, he's a Battleship kinda guy." I take a big gulp of my coffee and try to ignore the fact that my witty banter isn't up to snuff quite yet, and start glaring at the radio, which isn't playing any music, instead there is some insipid little man prattling on about breast size, Duncan takes notice of my glare and quickly switches over to the CD in the car, before I put my foot through his radio. Bad rap isn't the most soothing thing in the morning, but at least it's completely unintelligible, so I can't get angry at what there saying, later I can get angry because I can't understand them, but it's too early for that.

Without enough caffeine the school day drags on, Wallace has decided that as much as he likes me, and as much as I'm his best friend, he's not really up with sitting with Duncan and Logan at lunch, which leaves the two of them alone. I feel bad, but at the same time, Logan really needs to learn to stand on his own feet and pull out that thicker skin I know he has hiding somewhere in his closet, because I've met his father, and to live in a house with that man you have to have grown a hide like a wooly mammoth. Of course, what I wasn't expecting was a visit from Duncan's mother at lunch, especially one where she started shouting when she didn't find me immediately sitting with her son, not that I blame her for not looking for me with the PCH bike club, because really, would that be the first place anyone would have looked for me before Monday, but instead of taking the time to actually look for me before she started yelling at me, she just got on with it.

"Veronica Mars, what the hell is wrong with you?" Celeste Kane stood in the middle of the Neptune High court yard and posed the question to the entire student body.

"Oh, so many answers to that question, where do you what me to start Celeste?" I stood up with Weevil behind me and addressed Mrs. Kane, not really wanting to get much closer to her then I was. I could see several tables away both Duncan and Logan where also standing, looking at her like she had lost her mind, and I was right with them on that one, this couldn't be good.

"You left these horrible papers just sitting around my house, anyone could have picked them up and read them, do you have any idea what that could have done to my family?"

"No, why don't you share with the entire student body Mrs. Kane? What could the papers that you had me sign to wave my right to the Kane fortune or the DNA test results proving my paternity possibly do to your family, enlighten us?" I knew as soon as the words where out of my mouth that I probably shouldn't have said them, but it felt really good to get them out of my head and into the open, the look on Celeste's face was just a really nice bonus.

"You are a shameful and horrible little girl; you have not self control and make me sick!"

"I must get that from my father; tell me, did daddy dearest find the papers, is that why you are so upset?" Celeste was turning redder and redder the more I talked, which I was enjoying immensely, so I kept going. "Let me guess, you didn't tell him that you where having me sign papers that would wave my right to his money, and he's not real happy with you now that he's found out."

"He wants to give you a college fund, and set up a trust fund for you, he wants to do right by you, his horrible bastard offspring, you and your mother don't deserve a penny that this family has earned."

"I'm sorry, by family, do you mean Jake, because as far as I can tell all you do is sit around and plan parties. I'm not to broken up about the fact that he wants to give me money though, I could really use some for college, that would really be a weight off my father's mind, and by father, I mean Keith Mars, so I hope your dear husband doesn't expect me to call him Daddy in return for the generous donation to my college account, or any other money he might feel the need to send my way, I can't be bought."

Celeste got this manic smile on her face, "Veronica, we both know you can be bought, I've bought you more then once, and this last time for that hoodlum standing behind you, and all it did was cost you you're inheritance, just see if you get a penny from us."

"Have a nice day, Mrs. Kane; it was so nice chatting with you!" I smiled as evilly as I could manage, and then turned back to the PCH table, not really caring to watch Celeste make her grand exit.

"V, what was she talking about, it costing your inheritance?" Weevil put both of his hands on my shoulders and kept me from walking back to the table, which we had wondered away from during our discussion with Mrs. Kane.

"Nothing, I told her that I would find Duncan free of charge if she would drop the charges against you, you know this."

"But, what about the inheritance?"

"She has always known that there was a possibility that I was Jake's daughter, god, that's weird to say." I needed to sit down, and took advantage on the bench that was right next to us, Weevil sat with me, giving me more space then I really thought was necessary. "When dad found Duncan, Mrs. Kane refused to pay, because of my deal with her, we sued and she settled, one of the contingencies was that I would sign away any further claim to the Kane family estate, which I did, and you saw that in the file you snooped in, I did this all before I read the DNA results that dad had gotten. Essentially, I signed away my inheritance to keep you out of jail, but I really don't see it that way, I see it as sticking with my dad when he needed it the most, Celeste just likes to create conflict where ever she can."

"And you're okay with the fact that you lost out on possibly millions of dollars because of me?" The look in his eyes was so vulnerable and sweet that I wanted to take him in my arms and kiss away any doubt that he could possibly have about any decision that I had made, but I knew that I couldn't do that in front of the PCH, it would have to wait until we where alone, for now I would just have to settle for my wonderful eloquence to get me by.

"There's nothing that they could give me that I need or want, I didn't do it for you, believe it or not, I would forgo the fifty thousand that they where offering for Duncan for you in a heart beat, even before we where dating, and I did, but I gave up the possibility of millions because at the end of the day, no matter what, my dad is my dad, and he needed to know that, and me taking their money would never erase the fact that I had hurt him if I hadn't signed that paper. You don't need to feel bad about anything, I made this decision, and I'm happy with it. Of course, now we have to deal with the fact that my shouting match with Celeste just outed the fact that I'm related to Duncan, and I was kinda hoping to not have to deal with that little tidbit until next year, really, one big problem a year is enough for me." Weevil pulled me into the safety of his arms and planted a kiss on the top of my head, rubbing his hand up and down my arm.

"We'll deal with it, V." It was all he had to say, and I knew everything was going to be fine. Soon, we where joined on our bench by Duncan and Logan, both of whom looked a bit shell shocked by Celeste's appearance and our argument.

"So, everyone knows?" Duncan looked worried.

"Yep." I looked around the patio and could see people avoiding looking at our group.

"Think we can transfer to another school before they start talking about it?"  
"Nope." And really, what fun would transferring be, we would loose all this great drama.

"So, what? We just keep sticking together?"  
"Looks like its always going to be the three musketeers, cause we are so screwed up that we can't get along without each other. I hope you don't mind Weevil and Wallace joining in from time to time?"

"As long as you're okay with Meg tagging along, I think I've finally stared to patch things up with her, its going to be a long road, but I think we'll get there."

Logan looked a bit left out, giving us his best lost puppy dog eyes and whimpery lip. "What about me, I don't have any special friends to bring with me, I have no one to kiss under the mistletoe, I'm the poor little match girl."

"Suck it up Echolls, you'll bounce back, we'll find you a nice special friend to have all to your self, hey, maybe you and Fennel will hit it off, then we can all be one big happy family." I punched Weevil in the arm, "hey, what was that for."

"Leave Logan alone, his girlfriend just left him for the leader of the local biker gang, he's having ego issues." I snuggled into Weevil's embrace and smiled at my little group, everything was perfect; other then the fact that I now had to deal with the fall out from Mrs. Kane, and we still needed to find out what happened to Felix, life was good.


	27. Chapter 27

Part 27

Part 27

It was worse then the first day back to school after dad was thrown out of office, the stares and the whispers weren't just directed at me, they where directed at all of us, Duncan was taking it the hardest, he had the least experience dealing with people's negative reactions, sure he had watches both Logan and I go through it, but that was nothing compared to going through it yourself. He hung his head, and tried to hide behind Logan, he refused to go to his locker or mine, knowing that the news had already reached the papers, and he didn't want to face what he knew was waiting for him there, and nothing that either Logan or I said to him could deter him from this decision.

"I don't even know why I came to school today, other then the fact I couldn't be at home. Mom and dad are fighting so loudly the neighbors called the cops, and you can only imagine what it was like to have Lamb over at the house now that this has all broken in the news." Duncan looked like he was on the verge of tears, and if I hadn't known he would take it so badly, I would have shouted at him to toughen up, to take it like a man, to hold his head up and not make this any worse then it needed to be, but we had all been through so much in the past two years that yelling at Duncan at this point would probably just break him further.

"Don't worry what they say, it doesn't matter, whatever their thinking, whatever they do, we know the truth, we know what really happened, and there was nothing that we did that was wrong, we didn't know, and that's all that matters." I wanted to hug him, or put my hand on his arm or something to show my support, but I wasn't sure that that would be the best idea at the moment, not with all the people watching, not with the way he kept looking at me.

"But I did know, I knew that there was a possibility that we where related, I knew you could be my sister, and I still slept with you, that give every one of them the right to say whatever they want about me, I'm horrible and sick and a monster, and everything they say is right." He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, like at any moment a truck would come out of the fog and mow him down, he turned a hideous shade of green, and white and looked like he was going to throw up or pass out.

"You where under the influence of drugs, Duncan, you weren't in your right mind, and that changes everything. I don't blame you, I'm not upset or angry, it's a little disturbing to think about, but its not your fault, and there is nothing we can do to change it now, so lets go to class, buck up, and ignore anything that is said to you, remember, the only things that matter are what is said in this group, by the three of us, nothing outside this circle can hurt you or affect you unless you let it." I push him in the direction that Logan is facing, toward their first period class, all eyes are on us now, Logan is suddenly not the topic of conversation, and I think he wishes he was, he can handle it better then Duncan can, he has shouldered burden, and other then Lilly's death, Duncan doesn't know how to deal with this kind of pain and torment.

As they walk away, I can hear the whispers of my classmates, the backstabbing that is happening, and I square my shoulders, and head in the direction of my locker, knowing full well that it is covered in articles clipped out of the local paper, filled with pictures of Duncan and I, full of inquests into the relationship between my mother and his father, about how my dad, Keith Mars is handling everything that is happening, speculation on what is going to happen now; still I walk to my locker, pull down each taped up piece of newsprint, and put it in the trash can, and command myself not to cry in front of my classmates, because that will just make them do it more.

As I pull down the last of the papers, I can feel people standing behind me watching, and I don't want to turn around, I don't want to face them, but I know if I don't that the wolves at this stupid school will see it as a sign of weakness, they will smell blood and at the smell of blood these wolves will devour anything in their way to rip you to shreds.

"I gotta say, you guys really just aren't that creative, I mean really, the news papers taped to the locker, that is so last year. Can't you guys come up with something better, you've been pulling this same stunt for a year now, with all the dirt you have on me you would think that you would come up with something new to do, something more interesting." I say this all before I turn around, and when I do, I came face to face with the PCH bike club, all of whom have grim expressions on their faces.

"We would have taken those down for you." Weevil takes a step away from the rest of the group, and pulls me into his arms. I look around the hall, and the rest of the school is a good ways back, kept there by the glares that they are receiving from the bikers. "We where hoping that we would get here before you. We took care of Duncan's locker already. Figured that he would need it the most."

"You're right, he needs it more then I do, I can handle this, I'm okay. I'm more then okay, I'm giddy and skipping. This is nothing new for me." I put on my best Veronica Mars smile, which I can feel doesn't reach my eyes, but has fooled oh, so many people before.

"You're not okay," Weevil whispers in my ear, his warm breath sending shivers down my spine, "but that alright, we're here for you, anything you need, just name it." He pulls back and looks at me in the eyes and winks. "My girl only gets the best," he says so that the hallway can hear him, "the full service treatment, from Weevil. Come on, let's get out of here. We don't need any of these guys. I'll have the boys get Duncan and Logan. I'll let you ride my hog." He puts his arm around my shoulder and picks up my messenger bag from where it's sitting on the floor. "We can go get that license we've been talking about. Then I kinda want to go visit Felix," he says quietly to just me.

I smile up at him. "Can I drive?"


	28. Chapter 28

Part 28

I felt almost guilty letting the three of us skip school, we where supposed to face our demons, deal with the kids at school, look them in the eyes and hold our heads up high, but I just couldn't do it today, and from the looks in both Duncan and Logan's eyes, neither could they. This week had been entirely too hard, first with dealing with the fall out from finally solving Lilly's murder, and having the school come down on Logan, and now with the revelations that Celeste brought to school the day before, we where all drained emotionally.

We met in the parking lot, the three musketeers and the PCH bike club, we where quite the motley crew. Logan and Duncan got into Duncan's car, which hadn't gotten a change to be vandalized yet, seeing as we had only been at school for half an hour and I took the keys from Weevil's outstretched hand and swung my leg over the bike, kicked out the stand and sat waiting for Weevil to join me.

"You look entirely out of place sitting there, Ronnie." Logan leaned out the window of Duncan's car, watching me push my hair back so I could fit my butterfly helmet over my head with as little damage to my hair as possible.

"And where should I be, Logan? Would a little sporty bike suit me better?" I slide the helmet over my head and push back the visor so I can keep talking.

"Or the front seat of a nice LaBaron." Duncan chimed in.

"There's nothing nice about the LaBaron, and she's dying anyway." I was surprised that I felt sad about that, sure the car had gotten me through the past year, and I had spent many a night doing homework in the front seat while on stake out, but I had never really thought about being attached to the rust bucket.

"So, what are you going to do now, I'm sure that cereal boxes that big are hard to come by, I mean, think of trying to get them home." Logan smiled at me, which was a nice change from the last time he made that crack.

"I'll think of something, trust me. Have I ever been without wheels? I've always gotten to school in style." I lean forward as Weevil's weight settles behind me, and I get ready to flip down my visor. "I say we head to the beach, I'm ready for some fun in the sun, and I'm sure that somewhere in the back of that car Duncan's got a suit for me."

"One of Lilly's, and it's been in there forever, but if you don't mind the tiniest bikini you've ever seen, then yeah, I have a suit." Duncan looked a little green at the thought of me in Lilly's suit, or possibly the thought of me in a suit at all; an image that I'm sure a few months ago would have been something that would have stuck in his mind for days. Oddly enough, Logan looked almost as disturbed as Duncan at the thought of me in a skimpy bikini.

"Those looks are starting to make me feel insulted, Duncan, you may just have to get over the fact that I can't wear a burka all the time, you've seen naked, deal. Logan, not to long ago you couldn't wait to get my clothes off, you are being stupid."

"V, you wanna wear a skimpy bikini, that's just fine with me," Weevil's hands traveled low over my hips, and onto my stomach. "I'd be even happier with naked." Duncan and Logan made noises of protest, but rolled their windows up, and pulled out to the beach.

I flipped my visor down, and started up the bike, stomping on the starter, and following Duncan's car. I could hear the roar of the PCH behind me, and felt powerful, they where Weevil's gang, but today they where following my lead, while Weevil road behind me.

The beach was mostly empty; a few of Neptune's older residence where walking along the boardwalk, and surfing, but other then that the beach was clear. I took the pre-offered bathing suit from Duncan, and headed to the changing rooms before he could say anything further about the size of the suit, which was tiny, though the top was pretty proportional to me, since Lilly was much larger then I am in the bust department. It was pink and built like a bra on top and string on the bottom, the bottoms where almost too skimpy for me to feel like I could stay in them, and I marveled at the fact that Lilly could, since her hips had been bigger then mine, but I wanted to swim and lay on the beach, so, I took a deep breath and stepped out of the changing room.

The PCHers, none of whom had suits, and none of whom cared to get in the water, or stay at the beach for long, where all standing outside the changing area sitting on their bikes whistling at me. I could feel myself blush from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet, and there was no hiding it. I pretended to be nonchalant about it, tossing my hair over my shoulder and striking a pose, but the blushing canceled it all out.

"Damn, V. How come I can't get you to dress like that more often?" Weevil came up to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to his body, blocking me from the view of the rest of the bikers.

"You never take me to the beach, you never take me anywhere." I pout and sigh loudly. "You just want me for the sex, it has nothing to do with my personality, you don't love me anymore." I wail out the last part dramatically, and throw my hand over my forehead, leaning back in Weevil's embrace.

He pulls me back up to his body and puts one of his hands in my hair, and lowers his lips to mine, placing a chaste kiss on my lips. "I like you for everything you are, everything. The sex is just a nice bonus," he murmurs against my lips.

I push myself up onto my toes and lean fully into him, pressing my lips against his harder, taking his bottom lip between mine, as I twine my hands behind his head. "Yeah, but the sex is fantastic." I murmur before I push away, heading for the shore line, where Duncan and Logan are waiting for us.

"You're such a tease, V." He calls after me, before dismissing his boys and following after me.

We spend a few hours on the beach, Duncan, Logan and I splashing in the surf, while Weevil watches from the sand, looking very sexy without his biker jacket on, sprawled out in just a dark blue wife beater and baggy jeans; then Weevil sweeps me off to the DMV to work on getting me my license to drive a motorcycle, since all the driving I've been doing up until this point hasn't been particularly legal, not that that really fazes Weevil much, but it would make dad pretty angry if we got caught, since there's the no getting Veronica in trouble clause to the relationship.

We walked out of the DMV just after two in the afternoon, and where ready to go visit Felix in San Diego when Weevil got a call on his cell phone. He pressed the phone close to his ear, plugging the other ear with his finger and turned away from me. I couldn't tell who he was talking to, or what way the conversation was going, when he suddenly flipped the phone closed, grabbed my hand and headed for his bike, indicating I should get on without telling me where we were going or what was happening.


	29. Chapter 29

Part 29

Part 29

We pulled up outside of San Diego Memorial Hospital less then half an hour later, probably breaking at least half a dozen traffic laws getting there. Weevil pulled off his helmet and then grabbed my hand again. He hadn't said anything since he had gotten the phone call outside the DMV, and I was starting to get a little worried, though he didn't seem upset, he didn't really seem anything, just determined.

Felix's mother and sister where sitting in the waiting room when we got there, I tried to tell from their faces what was going on, if something had happened to Felix, but they both just looked tired. Anna smiled at me when we walked by, but Mrs. Toombs didn't acknowledge either of us. Weevil walked right past them and threw a set of doors that we had taken before to see Felix. When we got to his room he looked mostly the same, some of his bruises where fading and he was no longer hooked up to a respirator, but other then that, I couldn't see a difference; that was until we walked through the door, and he opened his eyes and looked at us.

"Weevil, man, my little sister said you where coming by, but I didn't think you would be bringing Blondie." Felix's voice was scratchy, probably from having a tub down his throat for almost a week.

"Yeah, well I thought that you would like to thank her yourself, she's the one who found you, and your bike, which is safe and sound at your house."

"What you do that for, V?" Felix looked puzzled, we had never been friends or really talked at all, I had dealt with Weevil when I did anything with the PCHers, and the last real time we had had any interaction I had tazered him.

"Weevil asked real nice." I smiled at him, I wanted him to know that I was sorry about everything that had happened, and I hoped we could get along, since he was Weevil's best friend.

"Well, then I guess it's a good thing you're here. We need to talk about what we're going to do about Thumper." Weevil's eyebrows about hit what should have been his hair line.

"So it was Thumper, Weevil said you two went to a party together the night you didn't come home, but we weren't sure if you had gotten in trouble at the party, or what." I took a seat in on of the orange hospital chairs to one side of Felix's bed, while Weevil took up residence behind my chair, placing his hand on the back of the seat.

"There was no party, Thumper took me out to the middle of no where, we met up with some guys, I don't know them, but they seem to know Thumper. He said it was a message to you, that you hadn't been doing what you should with the gang, that you where spending too much time chasing after Blondie, and not enough time with the boys."

"Well, that won't be a problem anymore, Blondie got caught, but your right, Thumper's got to be dealt with." Weevil looked at me, trying to determine whether or not he wanted me to hear what he and Felix where going to do to Thumper.

"Don't look at me like that, you plan what you want, I'll make sure you don't get caught, but if you are going to let me in, you have to listen to what I say, I don't want to have to give up another fortune getting you two get out of jail free cards, and I'm pretty sure there isn't another fortune coming to me."

The boys spent the better part of the next hour deciding what to do with Thumper; my suggestion was to get him sent to jail, on assault charges, which would be completely legal, not to mention the fact that he deserved it. The boys said it would send the wrong message to the gang, but if all else fails, they where willing to let me handle the authorities, letting the PCH know that if you messed with Weevil or anyone close to Veronica, then I would use every resource I had to bring the law down on you; I had resources in both directions, I could get you out of trouble or into trouble, just don't cross me or mine. In the end they had a plan that I was mostly happy with, and we said out good-byes to Felix, who would be released from the hospital on Friday, pending no more complications.

Weevil put his arm around my shoulders as we walked through the automatic doors that lead out of the hospital. "V, you're really one amazing girl."

"Aw, shucks Weevil, you say the nicest things." I tucked my head into his chest, letting him guide me into the parking lot.

"No, really, you have been great this past week, I've really needed that, and you've been there for Duncan and Logan, your helping out with Meg and Duncan, when do you take time to help you?" His voice was all soft, like it was when he asked me about how I was when he picked me up from Logan's that first night, and this time I took it seriously, it was his worried voice, and I was beginning to appreciate it.

"I'm taking time right now, see, you're going to hand over the keys to your bike, and I'm going to take you to this nice beach, and we're going to walk for a while, then your going to take me to dinner, not at your house, though I really enjoyed meeting your family, but I want date number two."

"Good, cause I've really been looking forward to those snickerdoodles." He squeezed my side, pulling me more into him.

"Only if you let me put them in a spirit box." I smiled up into his eyes, and was happy, everything was going perfectly, life was really falling into place, and this time I didn't have that nagging felling in the back of my mind that there was something that still needed to be worried about. Felix was going to pull through, we would deal with everything at school, and I had the best boyfriend ever.

"How are you going to decorate a spirit box for me, I don't do any sports."

"You'll just have to wait and see, now hand over those keys, Vato." Weevil deposited the keys in my hand, and I took off for where his bike was parked, with him chasing after me, right on my heals.


End file.
